\ 


PROGRESSIVE 

RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT  IN 

AMERICA 


PROGRESSIVE 

RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

IN  AMERICA 

A  SURVEY  OF  THE  ENLARGING 
PILGRIM  FAITH 

By 
JOHN  WRIGHT  BUCKHAM 

Professor  of  Christian  Theology  in  Pacific  School  of  Religion 

Author  of  "  Personality  and  the  Christian  Ideal '," 

"Mysticism  and  Modern  Life"  etc. 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

(2TIje  fiitetjrfifce  pre£0  Cambrtbge 

1919 


COPYRIGHT,   1919,  BY  JOHN  WRIGHT  BUCKHAM 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


DEDICATED 

TO  MY  STUDENTS  IN 

PACIFIC  SCHOOL  OF  RELIGION 

IN  RECOGNITION 

OF  THEIR  EARNEST  AND  OPEN-MINDED  LOVE 
OF  TRUTH 


PREFACE 

THIS  volume  aims  to  do  for  a  movement  in 
American  theology  something  of  that  which 
Principal  Tulloch's  Religious  Thought  in  Great 
Britain  during  the  Nineteenth  Century  did  for  a 
better  known  period  in  English  and  Scotch  the- 
ology. The  studies  which  it  comprises  keep  close 
to  the  personalities  through  whom  the  move- 
ment arose  and  progressed.  They  are  biographi- 
cal appreciations  as  well  as  theological  studies. 
If  in  some  cases  they  suggest  eulogies,  or  even 
panegyrics,  it  is  because  personal  contact  has 
begotten  in  the  author  a  deep,  but  he  trusts  not 
unintelligent,  admiration  for  men  whose  breadth 
and  earnestness  of  thought  issued  from  a  like 
nobility  of  mind  and  character.  There  are  times 
when  estimates,  however  judicial,  become  in- 
evitable tributes.  The  writer  hardly  needs  to 
state  that  the  volume  is  largely  the  result  of 
gratitude  to  minds  that  have  stimulated  and 
enriched  his  own. 

While  it  would  be  too  sanguine  to  assume  that 
at  the  present  time  there  is  any  marked  concen- 
tration of  attention  upon  religious  thought, 
there  is  a  certain  steady  interest  in  a  subject  so 


viii  PREFACE 

vital,  augmented  as  the  general  mind  settles 
back  upon  permanent  spiritual  concerns  after 
its  absorption  in  the  Great  War.  The  inherent 
attraction  of  the  history  of  the  growth  of  relig- 
ious thought  is  quickened  in  this  case  by  the 
proximity  of  the  tercentenary  of  the  founding  of 
Pilgrim  New  England,  with  all  the  deeply  sacred 
associations  that  attach  to  that  notable  event, 
including  its  fruitage  in  this  development  of  the 
Pilgrim  faith. 

In  entitling  this  a  survey  of  progress  in  Ameri- 
can religious  thought  the  author  does  not  intend 
to  imply  that  progress  began  with  the  men  or 
the  movement  described.  On  the  contrary,  it 
commenced  with  some  of  the  earliest  members 
of  the  colonial  ministry,  as  a  study  of  New  Eng- 
land theology  plainly  discloses.  There  was  an 
ardent  sincerity  in  the  religious  life  and  thought 
of  New  England  from  the  first  which  lit  more 
than  one  lamp  of  original  thought  that  was  not 
hid  under  a  bushel.  Yet  those  earlier  liberal 
thinkers  were  isolated.  The  movement  here  de- 
scribed won  its  way  by  cooperation.  Nor  would 
the  author  give  the  impression  that  he  has  no 
sense  of  the  place  and  value  of  intelligent  con- 
servatism in  religious  thought,  exerting,  as  it 
does,  a  wise  and  helpful  restraint  upon  too  im- 


PREFACE  ix 

petuous  and  ill-considered  advance.  Yet  con- 
servatism, though  essential  and  useful,  is  not 
of  the  first  importance  as  compared  with 
thought  that  wins  new  ground  for  coming  gen- 
erations. 

The  chronologies  which  I  have  been  advised 
to  include  call  for  a  word  of  comment.  While 
they  are  at  best  but  symbols  —  often  clanging 
cymbals  —  they  serve  to  some  extent  as  indica- 
tions of  the  movement  of  a  life,  inner  as  well  as 
outer,  toward  its  larger  ends.  In  the  preparation 
of  these  I  have  been  indebted  in  large  measure 
to  the  several  biographies  referred  to  and  to 
that  invaluable  record  of  contemporary  history, 
Who's  Who  in  America,  as  well  as  to  information 
personally  acquired. 

To  my  colleagues  and  others  who  have  lent 
encouragement  and  assistance  I  extend  hearty 
thanks.  If  something  of  the  mental  and  spiritual 
uplift  which  have  come  through  the  preparation 
of  these  studies  communicates  itself,  it  will  prove 
to  have  been  a  fruitful  task,  —  yielding  a  fresh 
sense  of  the  depth  and  scope  of  Christianity  as 
it  reveals  itself  in  the  enlarging  thought  of  these 
progressive  interpreters  of  the  Pilgrim  faith. 

JOHN  WRIGHT  BUCKHAM 
Berkeley,  California 


CONTENTS 

I.  INTRODUCTION:  HORACE  BUSHNELL  AND 

THE  LIBERATORS  3 

II.  THEODORE  T.  MUNGER:  THE  NEW  THE- 
OLOGY DEFINED  AND  RELATED  55 

III.  GEORGE  A.  GORDON:  THE  NEW  THEOLOGY 

UNIVERSALIZED  85 

IV.  WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER:  THE  NEW  THEOL- 

OGY IN  ACTION  145 

V.  EGBERT   C.  SMYTH  AND  THE  ANDOVER 

THEOLOGY  187 

VI.  WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  AND  THE  SOCIAL 

THEOLOGY  217 

VII.  NEWMAN  SMYTH  AND  LATER  REPRESENTA- 
TIVES OF  THEOLOGICAL  PROGRESS  261 

VIII.  CONCLUSION:  THE  FUTURE  OF  THEOLOGY 

IN  AMERICA  307 

INDEX  341 


PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 
IN  AMERICA 

CHAPTER  I 
HORACE  BUSHNELL  AND  THE  LIBERATORS 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 

1802.  April  14.    Birth  in  Litchfield,  Conn. 

1821.  United  with  church  in  New  Preston,  Conn. 

1823.  Entered  Yale  College. 

1827-28.  Taught  school  in  Norwich,  Conn. 

1827.  Graduated  from  Yale  College. 

1828-29.  Associate  editor  of  Journal  of  Commerce,  New  York. 

1829-31.  Tutor  at  Yale  College.     Pursued  law  studies. 

1831.  Entered  Yale  Divinity  School. 

1833.  May  23.     Ordained    pastor    of    North  Church    in 
Hartford,  Conn. 

1833.  Sept.  13.    Married  in  New  Haven,  Mary  Apthorp. 

1841.  Received  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Wesleyan 
University,  Middletown,  Conn. 

1845.  Visited  Europe  in  search  of  health. 

1849.  Hartford   Central    Association   discussed   the    book, 

"God  in  Christ."     Errors  not  found  fundamental. 

1850.  Remonstrances    and    Complaints  of    Fairfield    West 

Association  to  Hartford  Central  Association  upon 
their  action  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Bushnell. 

1852.  North  Church  of  Hartford  withdrew  from  Consocia- 
tion. 

1854.  Protest  of  the  Pastoral  Union  to  the  pastors  and 
churches  of  New  England. 

1856.    Life  in  California. 

1856.  Invited  to  the  presidency  of  the  College  of  California. 
Declined  in  1861,  after  rendering  valuable  service. 

1859.  Resigned  from  North  Church,  Hartford,  on  account 
of  continued  ill-health,  and  against  unanimous  wish 
of  the  people. 

1876.    February  17.    Death  in  Hartford,  Conn. 


PROGRESSIVE 
RELIGIOUS    THOUGHT 
IN  AMERICA 

CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTION 

HORACE  BUSHNELL  AND  THE   LIBERATORS 

HISTORY,  commencing  as  a  chronicle  of  events, 
has  widened  into  an  ampler  account  of  human 
life,  including  not  only  its  outer  incidents  but 
its  inner  movements.  Close  to  the  heart  of 
history  is  religion  —  at  first  instinctive,  in- 
articulate, unaware  of  its  own  content,  but 
gradually  becoming  self-conscious  and  creating, 
as  do  other  forms  of  experience,  a  science, 
theology. 

Viewed  as  a  dogmatic  systemism,  theology 
has  lost  its  interest;  viewed  as  a  progressive 
science,  in  the  light  of  the  principle  of  develop- 
ment, it  regains  its  hold  upon  human  interest 


RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

and  confidence.  Deny  the  fact,  or  the  possibility, 
of  progress  in  theology  and  its  whole  area  ap- 
pears only  as  a  field  of  dry  bones.  Admit  this 
principle  and  the  search  for  ultimate  truths 
takes  on  not  only  life  and  attractiveness  but 
large  and  genuine  import.  Thanks  to  the 
recognition  of  its  progressive  nature  theology, 
after  a  period  of  due  abasement,  gives  promise 
of  recovering  its  true  place  and  mission.  If 
religion  is  a  vital  human  interest,  theology 
cannot  be  inconsequential.  For  theology  is  the 
flesh  and  bones  as  well  as  the  every-day  garment 
of  religion,  without  which  it  cannot  preserve  its 
normal  life,  much  less  its  self-respect. 


The  development  of  religious  thought  in 
America,  as  elsewhere,  is  closely  bound  up  with 
the  wider  movement  of  thought  of  which  it  is  a 
part.  Yet  it  has  a  certain  continuity  of  its  own 
which  calls  for  more  careful  study  than  it  has 
received.  This  becomes  increasingly  clear  as  the 
attention  given  to  the  history  of  European 
theology  is  compared  to  that  which  American 
theology  has  won.1  Whatever  the  disparity, 

1 1.  A.  Dorner  closed  his  History  of  Protestant  Theology  with 
a  survey  of  American  theology.  It  occupies  three  pages  out  of 
a  thousand;  but  it  was  written  in  1867. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

American  religious  thought  is  by  no  means 
negligible. 

The  construction  of  our  religious  and  theologi- 
cal history  is  going  forward  steadily.  Such  recent 
histories  as  F.  H.  Foster's  "History  of  the  New 
England  Theology,"  Woodbridge  Riley's  "Amer- 
ican Thought,"  the  King's  Chapel  lectures  on 
"The  Religious  History  of  New  England," 
and  such  biographies  as  Allen's  "Jonathan 
Edwards,"  Chadwick's  "Channing,"  Munger's 
"Horace  Bushnell,"  and  Allen's  "Phillips 
Brooks"  are  disclosing  something  of  the  direc- 
tion as  well  as  the  resources  of  American  theology. 

The  present  volume  is  chiefly  concerned  with 
a  movement  and  a  group  of  men  as  yet  but 
meagerly  estimated,  which  is  in  fact  but  just 
passing  from  the  stage,  but  whose  contribution 
to  theological  progress  is  clear  enough  to  call 
for  analysis  and  appreciation.  This  company  of 
Christian  thinkers  entered  upon  its  task  upon 
soil  made  ready  by  the  liberators  and  pioneers 
of  progressive  religious  thought  in  America  — 
whose  work  it  will  be  necessary  to  consider 
briefly  in  order  to  gain  a  proper  perspective. 
Chief  among  these  was  Horace  Bushnell,  to 
whom  will  be  given  the  greater  part  of  this 
introductory  chapter. 


6     PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 


ii 

Bushnell  was  in  some  respects  almost  as 
truly  the  father  of  the  later  constructive 
development  of  American  theology  as  was 
Jonathan  Edwards  of  the  earlier.1  Each  was  an 
original,  creative  mind;  and,  like  every  such 
mind,  each  continues  creative  and  potential. 
Theirs  is  not  a  single  impact,  once  exerted,  now 
withdrawn.  We  go  back  constantly  to  such 
minds  not  only  to  secure  more  comprehensive 
insights  but  for  fresh  impetus  and  incentive. 
They  may  not  be  retired  as  mere  historic  and 
defunct  figures;  they  are  among  us  still,  for 
"spirit  is  when  and  where  it  energizes"  and 
"  the  dead  live  when  we  think  of  them."  3 

This  is  notably  true  of  Bushnell.  The  last 
twenty-five  years  have  witnessed  a  greatly 

x" Other  thinkers  were  moving  in  the  same  direction;  he 
led  the  movement  in  New  England  and  wrought  out  a  great  de- 
liverance." (T.  T.  Munger:  Horace  Bushnell,  p.  413.)  "He  had 
a  vast  influence  upon  theology  in  America."  (Williston  Walker: 
Encyclopedia  Britannica,  nth  ed.;  article  on  "Bushnell.")  "I 
venture  the  prediction  that  posterity  will  accord  Bushnell  no 
second  place  among  the  prophets  of  these  latter  days  and  that 
the  verdict  of  history  will  pronounce  him  one  of  the  greatest 
religious  geniuses  which  Christianity  has  hitherto  produced." 
(George  B.  Stevens,  speaking  at  the  New  Haven  observance  of 
the  Bushnell  centenary.) 

aC.  H.  Dickinson:  The  Christian  Reconstruction  of  Modern 
Life,  pp.  92,  94. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

enhanced  estimate  of  his  part  in  theological 
advance  and  a  fresh  sense  of  the  unexhausted 
treasures  of  his  productive  personality.  He 
stood  very  much  alone  in  his  relation  to  most 
American  theologians,  out  of  harmony  with  his 
immediate  predecessors  and  contemporaries, 
unfamiliar  with  the  deeper  mind  of  the  greatest 
of  his  forerunners.  There  is  no  indication  that 
Bushnell  knew  Edwards'  writings  to  any  extent 
at  first  hand,  else  possibly  he  might  have  gotten 
from  him  something  of  that  sense  of  the  validity 
of  intuitivism  which  came  to  him  through  Cole- 
ridge; and  thus  the  line  of  continuity  might 
have  been  a  more  direct  one.  Yet  that  matters 
less  than  the  fact  that  in  spite  of  the  deep  and 
apparently  impassable  chasm  between  these 
two  productive  American  thinkers,  there  is, 
nevertheless,  an  unconscious  bond.  It  consists 
in  that  reliance  upon  spiritual  intuition  which 
characterized  them  both.  But  for  that,  there 
would  be  little  in  common  between  them.  The 
two  belong  to  different  theological  eras.  They 
are  farther  apart  than  are  Augustine  and 
Edwards  or  Clement  of  Alexandria  and  Bush- 
nell. Edwards'  mysticism  and  idealism  had  been 
lost  to  sight  in  the  wastes  of  his  Calvinistic 
system  and  Bushnell  knew  him  only  as  the 


8     PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

protagonist  of  sovereignty  and  the  antagonist 
of  freedom,  the  Titan  of  the  old  theology. 

The  legacy  of  the  New  England  theology 
gave  to  Bushnell  a  heavy  task.  It  left  more  to 
reject  than  to  aid,  more  to  halt  than  to  help  him. 
He  had  to  clear  away  the  intricate  entanglement 
of  doctrines  alien  to  pure  Christianity  that  had 
grown  up  in  the  somber  shadows  of  Edwards' 
Calvinism,  in  order  to  let  in  the  light.  This 
mission  he  fulfilled  with  signal  success,  for  he 
was  a  typical  pioneer,  with  all  the  vigor,  cour- 
age, and  determination  —  and  detachment  from 
the  past  —  of  a  pioneer.  Builder  of  roads, 
theological  reconstructor,  Bushnell  forged  his 
own  way  ahead  with  relatively  little  dependence 
upon  others. 

in 

The  first  task  that  confronted  him  was  to 
deliver  the  religious  life  of  his  day  from  the 
bondage  of  inflexibility  and  obscurantism  that 
fettered  it  and  to  restore  to  it  naturalness  and 
reality.  This  he  did  in  that  very  humble  but 
potent  initial  crusade  in  behalf  of  a  wider 
i Christianity,  "Christian  Nurture"  (i846).x 

1  Dr.  A.  C.  McGiffert  judges  of  this  book  that  it  "did  per- 
haps more  than  any  other  single  agency  to  break  down  the  extreme 
individualism  of  the  old  Puritan  theology  of  America."  See 
The  Rise  of  Modern  Religious  Ideas,  p.  277,  note. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

There  was  no  point  at  which  the  rigidity, 
the  barrenness,  the  inertia  of  the  older  theology, 
as  it  affected  the  Christian  life,  showed  itself 
more  baldly  than  in  its  treatment  of  the  reli- 
gion of  child  life.  It  bound  the  spontaneous 
budding  of  the  religious  instinct  to  one  inflexible 
and  extreme  pattern.  It  starved  some  of  the 
most  normal  instincts.  This  is  reflected  in  the 
words  of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe:  "With  all 
New  England's  earnestness  and  practical  effi- 
ciency, there  is  a  long  withering  of  the  soul's 
more  ethereal  portion, —  a  crushing  out  of  the 
beautiful, —  which  is  horrible."  The  offense 
thus  committed  was  more  than  against  a  single 
phase  in  the  development  of  the  inner  life.  It 
wronged  the  organic  nature,  the  unity  and 
vitality  and  freedom  of  religion  itself.  Bushnell 
saw  this  and  arraigned  both  the  theory  and  the 
practice. 

Our  very  theory  of  religion  is  that  men  are  to 
grow  up  in  evil  and  be  dragged  into  the  church  of 
God  by  conquest.  The  world  is  to  lie  in  halves  and 
the  kingdom  of  God  is  to  stretch  itself  side  by  side 
with  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  making  sallies  into 
it  and  taking  captive  those  who  are  sufficiently 
hardened  and  bronzed  in  guiltiness  to  be  converted. 
Thus  we  assume  even  the  absurdity  of  all  our  ex- 
pectations in  regard  to  the  possible  advancement 
of  human  society  and  the  universal  prevalence  of 


io  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Christian  virtue.  And  thus  we  throw  an  air  of 
extravagance  and  unreason  over  all  we  do.1 

He  did  not  make  the  mistake,  however,  of 
pronouncing  human  nature  wholly  pure  and 
good,  so  that  all  that  is  needed  is  to  let  it  unfold 
of  itself. 

There  is  no  so  unreasonable  assumption,  none  so 
wide  of  all  just  philosophy  as  that  which  proposes 
to  form  a  child  to  virtue  by  simply  educing  or 
drawing  out  what  is  in  him.  The  growth  of  Christian 
virtue  is  no  vegetable  process,  no  mere  onward 
development.  It  involves  a  struggle  with  evil,  a  fall 
and  rescue.2 

Yet  in  spite  of  this  discipline  of  the  soul  by 
struggle  with  an  innate  "pravity,"  Bushnell 
saw  that  the  life  of  God  is  in  the  life  of  the  race; 
that  the  church,  with  all  its  imperfections,  is  a 
"body  of  believers";  that  "the  organic  unity 
of  the  family"  is  a  reality  upon  which  Chris- 
tianity can  count.  The  steady  current  of  the 
Christian  faith  flows  normally  into  the  life  of 
successive  generations  and  forms  an  organic 
spiritual  continuum  which  cannot  be  ignored 
without  great  loss. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  because  Bushnell 
thus  laid  stress  upon  the^nurture  side  of  Chris- 

1  Christian  Nurture,  1st  ed.,  pp.  25,  26. 
_•  Ibid.,  p.  15. 


INTRODUCTION  11 

tianity,  he  disputed  or  ignored  its  redemptive 
mission.  To  this  he  had  already  given  full 
allegiance  in  an  article  in  "The  Christian 
Spectator"  entitled  "The  Spiritual  Economy 
of  Revivals  of  Religion"  (1838),  in  which  he 
sought  to  correct  the  abuses  and  misconcep- 
tions of  revivals  so  that  they  might  "constitute 
an  ebb  and  flow  measured  only  by  the  pulses 
of  the  Spirit."  His  purpose  throughout  was  not 
to  limit  but  to  enlarge  the  recognition  of  the 
methods  and  workings  of  that  Divine  Spirit 
who  is  as  varied  in  his  operations  as  the  varia- 
tions of  human  temperament  and  as  multiform 
as  the  gifts  of  the  Divine  grace. 

The  clarity  and  cogency  of  Bushnell's  ap- 
prehension of  the  principle  of  development  under- 
lying "Christian  Nurture"  appears  in  a  paper 
published  in  "The  New  Englander"  in  1844  — 
reprinted  in  "Christian  Nurture" — entitled 
"Growth,  not  Conquest,  the  True  Method  of 
Christian  Progress,"  in  the  course  of  which  he 
affirms: 

To  roll  a  snowball  and  to  grow  an  oak  are  not  the 
same  thing.  Enlargement  of  volume  is  a  result  in 
both  cases;  but  beyond  this  they  have  nothing  in 
common.  In  one  the  result  is  wrought  by  external 
force;  in  the  other  by  a  vital  force  within.  ...  In 
the  snowball  there  is  at  no  time  any  internal  power 


12  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

of  production  or  self  enlargement.  Not  one  of  the 
particles  in  its  cold  body  can  it  quicken  or  fruc- 
tify; whereas  in  the  tree  there  is  a  vital  self-active 
power.1 

From  this  the  writer  goes  on  to  show  the  dis- 
tinguishing qualities  of  the  "self-activity"  of 
the  mind,  manifesting  an  insight  that  fore- 
shadows William  T.  Harris*  ardent  and  pro- 
found exposition  of  the  same  principle.2 

IV 

A  second  deliverance  accomplished  by  Bush- 
nell  lay  in  undermining  the  rationalism  of  the 
New  England  theology  and  replacing  it  with  a 
theology  of  experience,  in  which  intuition  and 
unity  take  the  place  of  dogma  and  system. 
This  was  a  prophetic  emancipation.  It  came 
with  abundant  refreshment  and  promise  of 
new  life,  like  the  music  of  raindrops  after  a 
drought,  and  was  followed  by  verdure,  blossom, 
and  fruitage  as  of  a  new  and  affluent  season  of 
the  soul. 

The  chief  means  by  which  this  transformation 
was  effected  was  drastic.  It  consisted  of  his 
well-known  exposition  of  the  deficiency  and 

1  Christian  Nurture,  1st  ed.,  p.  147. 

a  See,  e.g.,  W.  T.  Harris:  Psychologic  Foundations  of  Educa- 
tion. 


INTRODUCTION  13 

incapacity  of  language  to  serve  as  the  medium 
of  religious  truth.  Here  was  a  simple,  under- 
standable, singularly  effective,  and  yet  very 
radical  critique  of  theology.  So  radical  was  it, 
in  fact,  that  for  those  who  accepted  it  too  un- 
reservedly it  came  near  undermining  not  only 
rationalism  itself,  but  the  very  foundations  of 
theology  as  a  science.  The  famous  "Disserta- 
tion on  Language" — which  forms  the  Intro- 
duction to  "God  in  Christ,"  —  "Christ  in 
Theology," — consisting  of  replies  to  the  at- 
tacks upon  his  position  —  the  Andover  address 
"Dogma  and  Spirit,"  and  "The  Gospel  a  Gift 
to  the  Imagination"  constitute  a  unique  and 
original  chapter  in  theological  method.  The 
sincere  and  sensitive  mind  of  Bushnell  was 
repulsed  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  study  of 
theology  by  the  systemism  which  held  even  the 
virile  mind  of  his  teacher,  Nathanael  W. 
Taylor,  in  its  iron  vise.  Seeking  patiently  for 
some  explanation  of  the  curse  of  ineptitude  and 
stagnation  which  rested  upon  theology  he 
found  it  at  length  —  so  he  thought  —  in  the 
very  nature  of  language,  supplemented  by  its 
incompetent  aids,  grammar  and  logic. 

The  long-sanctioned  and  authoritative  theo- 
logical terms  which  so  brow-beat  the  inquiring 


14  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

mind  and  awe  it  into  submission;  whence  are 
they  and  how  and  why  do  they  exercise  so 
imperial  an  authority?  Bushnell  looked  into 
their  real  nature  and  found  —  what?  Airy 
symbols  that  rise  like  genii  from  mere  physical 
objects  and  relations.  What  are  these  impres- 
sive terms,  he  asked,  but  words,  and  what  are 
words  but  figures  whose  root  is  in  the  common 
soil  of  every-day  sensuous  life?  The  revelation 
almost  overthrew  his  faith  in  theology  itself. 
"  Words,  words,  words," — what  is  it  all  but 
this?  Are  we  to  be  the  dupes  of  these  unstable 
phantasmagoria,  imagining  them  to  be  the 
very  substance  of  truth  itself?  But  let  Bushnell 
speak  for  himself: 

Words  of  thought  or  spirit  are  not  only  inexact 
in  their  significance,  never  measuring  the  truth  or 
giving  its  precise  equivalent,  but  they  always  affirm 
something  which  is  false,  or  contrary  to  the  truth 
intended.  They  impute  form  to  that  which  is 
really  out  of  form.  They  are  related  to  the  truth 
only  as  form  to  spirit,  —  earthen  vessels  in  which 
the  truth  is  borne,  yet  always  offering  their  mere 
flattery  as  being  the  truth  itself.1 

To  this  paralogism  of  language,  aggravated 
by  grammar,  there  succeeds  what  seemed  to 
Bushnell  the  deception  of  logic,  because  of  the 

*  God  in  Christ,  1st  ed.,  p.  48. 


INTRODUCTION  15 

imperfections  of  which  "the  logical  expounder 
can  make  it  certain  by  almost  no  degree  of 
caution  that  he  is  not  imposing  on  himself  by 
spinning  a  theory  that  is  really  of  some  word 
or  latent  form  of  grammar  in  his  language  and 
not  of  the  consciousness  itself." x  Moreover, 
when  by  a  process  of  elaborate  "  spinning,"  a  co- 
herent system  of  unified  thought  is  constructed, 
it  is  vitiated  by  the  partiality  or  prejudice  of 
the  mind,  or  system  of  thought,  out  of  which 
it  issued:  "There  is  a  form  element  in  every 
system  of  thought  or  doctrine  which  assimilates 
all  the  words  employed,  insinuating  into  them, 
or  imposing  upon  them,  a  character  partly 
from  itself."  2 

By  a  process  of  criticism  of  which  these 
citations  are  hints,  Bushnell  formulated  a  brief 
against  the  very  idea  of  theology  which  leaves 
the  too  receptive  reader  wondering  if  theology, 
has  any  claim  to  reverence  or  even  to  respect. 
Driven  by  these  exposures  of  the  inadequacy  of 
theology  he  falls  back  upon  what  he  calls  "a 
Perceptive  Power  in  Spiritual  Life."3  He  sees, 
that  is,  and  does  not  hesitate  to  avow,  that 
as  for  himself  and  his  spiritual  kin,  they  are 

1  Christ  in  Theology,  ist  ed.,  p.  85.  *  Ibid.,  p.  46. 

»  God  in  Christ,  p.  93. 


16  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

mystics.  He  concludes  that  this  is  a  "mystic 
world,"  that  "there  is  something  of  a  mystic 
quality  in  almost  every  writing  of  the  New 
Testament."  r  Thus  he  gives  in  his  allegiance 
to  that  attitude  toward  truth  which  has  been 
the  resort  of  so  many  devout  minds  alienated 
by  the  barrenness  of  rationalism. 

The  result  of  this  critique  was  in  the  main 
wholesome,  for  it  was  just  this  rationalistic 
aspect  of  truth  which  was  killing  the  New 
England  theology.  Only,  unhappily,  Bushnell 
carried  his  conclusions  so  far  that  in  pruning 
the  tree  of  theology  he  all  but  killed  it  for  such 
minds  as  followed  him  easily  in  his  criticism 
but  not  so  readily  in  his  construction. 

Reflecting  upon  these  theological  incompeten- 
cies  and  deficiencies,  by  a  fine  ascent  to  higher 
level  he  is  led  to  distinguish  between  theology 
and  what  he  termed  "Divinity," — a  kind  of 
truth-discovery  that  relies  upon  inspiration  and 
not  upon  reflection. 

The  student  then  will  be  a  student,  not  of  theology, 
but,  in  a  proper  sense,  of  divinity.  The  knowledge 
he  gets  will  be  divinity,  filling  his  whole  conscious- 
ness —  a  Living  State  and  not  a  scheme  of  wise 
sentences.  He  will  be  a  man  who  understands  God 
as  being  indoctrinated  or  inducted  into  God,  by 
1  God  in  Christ,  p.  95. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

studies   that   are   themselves   inbreathings   of   the 
divine  love  and  power.1 

The  distinction  is  a  valid  and  suggestive  one, 
provided  it  does  not  mean  that  theology  as  a 
science  should  be  relegated  to  oblivion  in  favor 
of  pure  intuition.  For  if  there  be  not  some  true 
and  proper  method  by  which  the  insights  of 
"Divinity"  may  be  interpreted  and  unified  a 
true -science  of  theology.;  is  impossible. 


It  is  to  the  honor  of  Bushnell's  catholic  mind 
and  to  the  advantage  of  American  theology  that 
this  undaunted  critic  of  theology,  after  all, 
never  got  farther  in  his  doubt  of  it  than  to  ask 
the  question:  "Is  it  probable  that  theology  .  .  . 
can  ever  become  a  science  or  attain  to  a  fixed 
and  properly  authoritative  statement?"2  For 
a  time  he  wavered  in  his  own  answer  to  that 
question,  but  finally,  in  effect,  answered  it  in 
the  affirmative.  All  through  his  persistently 
honest  and  open-minded  balancing  of  the 
infirmities  and  aspirations  of  theology,  one  may 
detect  the  hesitation  and  unwillingness  with 
which  he  held  back  from  committing  himself 
to  a  complete  condemnation  of  theology.  He 

1  Christ  in  Theology,  p.  67.  •  Ibid.,  p.  86. 


1 8   PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

sees  that  it  is  well  for  the  mind  to  theologize, 
though  he  thinks  that  "the  exercise  of  system 
or  endeavor  after  system  is  commonly  a  greater 
benefit  than  the  actually  resulting  systems  pre- 
pared." J  He  perceives  that  "to  crucify  the 
instinct  of  system  is,  in  one  view,  to  crucify 
the  intelligence."  "I  have  a  certain  conviction, 
whether  I  can  show  the  reasons  or  not,  that  we 
must  have  something,  somehow  held  and  ex- 
ercised, that  may  be  called  theology." 2  Thus 
in  spite  of  his  radicalism,  he  refrains  from  the 
condemnation  of  theology  as  a  rational  science 
until  at  length  he  virtually  not  only  concedes 
its  value  but  contributes  to  its  advance. 

There  was  in  fact  an  initial  insight  of  his  that 
kept  Bushnell  back  from  becoming  a  calumniator 
and  foe  of  theology  and  that  formed  the  prin- 
ciple which  lay  at  the  very  basis  of  his  theory  of 
language,  i.e.,  that  this  is  a  logos  world,  that 
reason  lies  back  of  symbol.  "There  is  a  logos  in 
the  form  of  things,"  he  declares,  "  by  which  they 
are  prepared  to  serve  as  types  or  images  of  what 
is  inmost  in  our  souls."  3  The  best  proof,  how- 
ever, that  Bushnell  transcended  his  deprecia- 
tion of  theology  is  that  he  himself  went  on  in  his 

1  Christ  in  Theology,  p.  80.  a  Ibid.,  p.  64. 

J  God  in  Christ,  p.  30. 


INTRODUCTION  19 

later  books  to  construct  the  outlines  of  a  science 
of  theology  of  large  and  organic  rationality. 
The  fact  is,  he  completely  outgrew  his  theory 
on  the  side  of  its  negations,  as  appears,  for 
example,  in  the  preface  to  "Nature  and  the 
Supernatural"  in  which  he  describes  the  volume 
as  follows: 

Here  is  a  wide  hypothesis  of  the  world,  and  the 
great  problem  of  life  and  sin  and  supernatural  re- 
demption and  Christ  and  a  Christly  Providence 
and  a  divinely  certified  history  and  of  superhuman 
gifts  entered  into  the  world  and  finally  of  God  as 
related  to  all,  which  liquidates  these  stupendous 
facts  in  issue  between  Christians  and  unbelievers 
and  gives  a  rational  account  of  them. 

Thus  critic  became  constructor,  so  that  we 
now  term  him  not  only  a  great  "divine,"  but  a 
great  theologian.1 

1  Yet  even  when  this  is  granted,  we  should  not  fail  to  recog- 
nize that  Bushnell  dealt  theology  a  sore  and  unwarranted  wound, 
too  much  like  those  of  the  philistines,  giving  encouragement  to 
many  to  assume  that  specious  contempt  of  theology  which 
to-day  controls  many  minds  who  confuse  theology  with  the  arid 
theologism  which  is  its  caricature.  It  was  deficient  knowledge 
of  its  achievements  and  an  immature  exaggeration  of  its  defects 
which  led  Bushnell  to  his  failure  to  recognize  the  full  office  of 
reason  in  religion,  to  his  identification  of  theology  with  terminol- 
ogy, and  to  the  pan-credalism  which  led  him  to  say,  "So  far 
from  suffering  even  the  least  consciousness  of  restraint  or  op- 
pression under  any  creed,  I  have  been  readier  to  accept  as  great  a 
number  as  fell  in  my  way"  (God  in  Christ,  p.  82).  Not  that  he 
deserves  depreciation  for  these  misadventures.  It  was  his 
mission,  not  to  explicate  and  defend  theology,  but  to  correct  it 


20  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

VI 

A  third  great  deliverance  which  Bushnell 
effected,  or  at  least  greatly  furthered,  lay  in 
breaking  down  the  dividing  wall  between  nature 
and  the  supernatural,  revealing  both  as  "parts 
of  one  system."  This  was  accomplished  in  his 
"Nature  and  the  Supernatural"  (1858)  which 
was  the  true  sequel  and  completion  of  his 
"Christian  Nurture."  In  this  field  of  thought, 
Bushnell,  without  being  fully  aware  of  it,  as- 
saulted and  despoiled  that  stronghold  of  scholas- 
ticism which  had  withstood  the  progress  of 
truth  from  the  mediaeval  theology  onward,  i.e., 
the  conception  of  two  separate  realms,  the 
kingdoms  of  Spirit  and  Nature  with  their  cor- 
responding explicants,  Revelation  and  Reason. 

The  segregation  of  the  natural  from  the 
spiritual,  of  Reason  from  Revelation,  cherished 
by  Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic  theology, 
resulted  in  giving  the  supernatural  an  arbitrary, 
unreal  character,  and  in  restricting  revelation 
to  the  covers  of  the  Bible  —  interpreted  with  a 
literal  unhistorical  rigidity  —  and  in  branding 

for  its  departures  from  its  high  calling,  to  restore  that  lost 
"Divinity,"  with  which  it  should  be  "saturated"  in  order  to 
become  a  science  at  all.  But  it  is  irrelevant  if  not  irreverent  to 
find  flaws  in  so  noble  a  gift  of  God  as  this  fertile  and  affluent 
mind  and  its  fruitage. 


INTRODUCTION  21 

all  the  ordinary  activities  and  intents  of  life 
as  alien  from  religion.  Because  of  this  mis- 
conception religion  had  come  to  seem,  too 
often,  only  a  sickly  and  artificial  light,  playing 
like  pale  moonbeams  upon  a  cold  and  loveless 
world.  Under  the  sway  of  this  scholasticism 
New  England  theology,  while  esteeming  herself 
the  guardian  and  nursing  mother  of  religion, 
had  in  reality  become  estranged  from  the  very 
spirit  of  religion  and  had  grown  frigidly  and 
drearily  dualistic.  No  one  saw  this  mistake 
more  clearly  than  Bushnell,  and  he  had  the 
courage  to  expose  it.  The  way  in  which  by  a 
well-directed  assault  he  pierced  this  decadent 
rationalistic  system  and  brought  it  to  its  fall 
was  by  showing  that  man  himself  belongs 
primarily  and  chiefly  to  the  supernatural  realm. 
Personality,  as  he  saw,  is  a  spiritual  reality, 
domiciling  in  nature. 

The  very  idea  of  our  personality  is  that  of  a  being 
not  under  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  a  being  super- 
natural. This  one  point,  clearly  apprehended,  all 
the  difficulties  of  our  subject  are  at  once  relieved, 
if  not  absolutely  and  completely  removed.1 

Here  was  a  revolutionary  principle;  as  its 
proponent  very  well  understood.  "If  any  one  is 

1  Nature  and  the  Supernatural,  2d  ed.,  p.  43. 


22  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

startled  or  shocked  by  what  appears  to  be 
the  extravagance  of  this  position,"  Bushnell 
reminds  him  that  "we,  as  powers  not  in  the 
line  of  cause  and  effect,  can  set  causes  in  nature 
at  work  in  new  combinations  otherwise  never 
occurring,  and  produce,  by  our  action  upon 
nature,  results  which  she,  as  nature,  could  never 
produce  by  her  own  internal  acting."  T 

With  this  clear  perception  of  the  priority 
and  worth  of  personality  as  a  supernatural 
reality,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  Bushnell 
molding  his  whole  theory  of  nature  to  conform 
to  the  interests  and  aims  of  personality.  From 
this  it  follows,  in  his  mind,  that  "the  world  is 
governed  supernaturally  in  the  interest  of 
Christianity."  Viewed  from  this  standpoint 
miracles  become  for  him  manifestations  of  a 
spiritual  order;  for  a  miracle  is  only  "a  super- 
natural act,  an  act,  that  is,  which  operates  on 
the  chain  of  cause  and  effect  from  without  the 
chain." a  Not  that  he  would  call  every  such  act 
a  miracle,  reserving  the  term  for  such  only  as 
"move  our  wonder  and  evince  the  presence  of 
a  more  than  human  power."3  This  opens  the 
way  for  his  famous  argument  for  the  continu- 

1  Nature  and  the  Supernatural,  2d  ed.,  p.  43. 
9  Ibid.,  p.  336.  *  Ibid.,  p.  336. 


INTRODUCTION  23 

ance  of  miracles1  —  a  contention  in  which  he 
strains  his  principle  to  the  breaking  point. 

In  consistent  but  mistaken  correspondence 
with  this  view  of  nature,  as  intended  for  the 
uses  of  supernatural  man,  he  pictures  the  dis- 
orders and  deformities  of  creation  antedating 
man's  arrival,  disclosed  by  geology,  as  being 
antitypes  of  human  sin,  foreseen  and  pre- 
provided  " anticipative  consequences"  of  man's 
lapse  into  a  spiritual  deformity  and  disfigure- 
ment of  which  these  misshapen  forms  in  nature 
should  be  the  rebuking  mirror.2  So  also  the 
"dark  things"  in  our  present  contacts  with 
nature  —  pain,  disease,  danger,  plague,  in- 
sanity, mutabilities  —  are  the  disciplinary  dis- 
pensations adapted  for  "moral  uses."3  By 
trial  and  testing  they  aid  us  in  the  development 
of  personal  character.  Such  was  the  moral 
optimism  of  this  courageous  and  confident 
mind. 

There  is  a  wealth  of  faith  and  courage  in  this 

'view  of  nature.    Here  was  no  "Bridgewater 

system"  vainly  striving  to  conceal  the  frowns 

and  wrinkles  upon  the  face  of  life  by  well- 

1  Nature  and  the  Supernatural,  2d  ed.,  chap.  XIV. 

>  Ibid.,  chap.  VII. 

» See  The  Moral  Uses  of  Dark  Things. 


24  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

intentioned  falsifications.  And  yet  Bushnell's 
eyes  were  holden  from  that  more  inclusive 
knowledge  of  nature  by  means  of  which  science 
was  about  to  help  the  theologian  solve  these 
difficult  problems  in  a  very  different  manner. 
"It  is  pathetic,"  as  Munger  remarks,  "to 
think  of  him  standing  on  the  borderland  of 
evolution,  but  not  entering  it.  Few  would  have 
so  fully  grasped  its  central  meaning  and  clearly 
traced  it  to  its  divine  conclusion."  z  Had  he 
had  the  advantages  of  that  larger  knowledge 
of  nature  which  has  come  since  his  day,  without 
relinquishing  his  hold  upon  the  twofoldness  of 
the  universe  he  might  have  realized  the  closer 
intimacy  between  matter  and  spirit  and  the 
light  thrown  upon  his  problem  by  the  law  of 
development.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  man  cannot 
act  wholly  from  without  the  chain  of  nature  but 
only  as  himself  both  within  it  and  at  the  same 
time  transcending  it.  Had  Bushnell  perceived 
this,  he  might  have  caught,  as  did  Paul,  indica- 
tions that  nature  is  not  only  groaning  and 
travailing  for  the  sake  of  man,  but  for  her  own 
adoption.  For  she,  too,  has  a  part  in  the  pre- 
liminary process  of  evolving  personality  — 
though  not  herself  the  author  of  personality. 
1  Horace  Bushnell,  p.  344. 


INTRODUCTION  25 

In  her  are  the  germs  of  that  freedom  that 
become  conscious  and  personal  in  man.  Nature 
reaches  forward.  The  very  flower  and  tree,  in 
their  own  way,  aspire, 

And  willing  to  be  God,  the  worm 
Flees  through  all  the  spires  of  form.1 

It  was  this  aspect  of  nature  which  Bushnell 
failed  to  appreciate,  not  having  entered  the 
kingdom  of  the  truth  of  development  where  he 
that  is  least  is  greater  than  the  greatest  in  the 
realm  of  the  static. 

Yet  it  would  be  unjust  to  find  fault  for  that 
limitation  in  Bushnell's  vision  for  which  his 
age,  not  he,  was  responsible.  It  was  his  mission 
to  introduce  a  new  and  larger,  if  still  imperfect, 
sense  of  the  unity  of  the  realm  of  God,  and  to 
emphasize  that  priority  of  spirit  to  nature, 
through  which  alone  their  true  unity  is  appre- 
hensible. 

VII 

The  fourth,  and  on  the  whole  perhaps  the 
greatest,  service  of  Bushnell  to  theology  lay 
in  what  he  did  toward  the  recovery  of  Christ 
as  the  central  light  and  potency  of  Christianity. 

It  is  passing  strange  how  the  New  England 
theology,  through  its  bondage  to  Calvinism, 

1  Emerson:  Journal,  vol.  VII,  p.  17. 


26  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

had  allowed  the  real  Christ  to  fade  out  of  Chris- 
tianity, leaving  a  frame  without  a  picture.  It 
is  true  that  the  theological  Christ  essential  to 
the  "plan  of  redemption"  was  made  much  of, 
but  he  was  but  a  pale  and  unreal  reflection  of 
the  Christ  of  the  Gospels.  Bushnell  reillumined 
Christianity  with  the  light  of  the  true  Christ. 
His  was  the  "Gospel  of  the  Face" — a  face 
which  was  "as  the  sun  shining  in  his  strength" 
and  lighting  up  all  the  heavy  shadows  and  dark 
recesses  of  an  otherwise  dismal  theological 
world.  The  church  of  America  has  not  yet 
realized  to  the  full  the  Christ-ward  tendency 
and  outcome  of  Bushnell's  influence,  nor  the  true 
greatness  of  the  conception  of  Christ  which 
he  has  given  to  her.  The  superb  tenth  chap-1 
ter  of  "Nature  and  the  Supernatural,"  "The 
Character  of  Jesus  Forbidding  his  Possible 
Classification  with  Men,"  has  been  republished 
separately  and  has  become  widely  known  and 
valued.  In  spite  of  the  presence  in  it  of  meta- 
physical presuppositions  no  longer  regnant,  it 
is  a  masterpiece.  But  far  profounder  and  more 
moving  is  the  noble  interpretation  of  Christ 
buried  in  the  midst  of  a  somewhat  barren  dis- 
cussion in  "The  Vicarious  Sacrifice"  (i866).x 
1  Part  II  of  the  volume. 


INTRODUCTION  27 

This,  too,  might  well  be  given  separate  form 
and  circulation.  In  its  deep  feeling,  its  elevation 
and  its  tenderness,  this  description  of  Christ 
carries  the  mind  back  to  that  morning  vision 
when,  with  glowing  face  and  vibrant  voice, 
Bushnell  exclaimed  to  his  wife,  "I  have  seen  the 
Gospel." x  It  was  a  mystical  vision,  similar  in 
nature  to  Paul's,  that  gave  Bushnell  his  gospel. 
But  other  factors  enter  into  his  appreciation  of 
Christ, —  searching  analysis,  intensive  reflection, 
subtle  discernment,  large  and  releasing  ideas  of 
God  and  life  and  truth.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
find  a  nobler  presentation  than  is  here  made  of 
the  true  nature  of  moral  power  as  it  appears  in 
Christ  —  its  humility,  selflessness,  cumulative 
character,  self-control,  tenacity,  patience,  en- 
durance. Such  a  presentation  of  Christ  as  this 
could  come  only  from  one  who  had  known  Him 
in  the  intimacy  of  such  a  discipleship  as  he 
himself  described  when  he  wrote,  "It  wants  a 
Christed  man  to  know  who  Christ  really  is  and 
to  show  Him  forth  with  a  meaning."2  Reverence 
and  affection  reach  their  climax  in  this  picture 
of  the  blended  moral  majesty  and  humility  of 
the  Son  of  Man: 

1  See  Munger's  Horace  Bushnell,  p.  114. 

a  "The  Gospel  of  the  Face,"  Sermons  on  Living  Subjects_(l$72). 


28  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

There  was  never,  we  may  safely  say,  any  such 
instance  of  self-devotion  among  men,  never  so  little 
of  heat  and  excitement,  never  such  firmness  coupled 
with  such  tenderness  and  gentleness,  never  such 
oblivion  of  popularity,  never  such  incapacity  to  be 
humbled  by  ignominy.  So  that  if  we  speak  of  heroes, 
we  are  tempted  either  to  say  that  he  is  no  hero  at  all, 
or  else  the  only  hero.  And  here  it  is  that  the  moral 
power  we  have  seen  him  obtaining  culminates.  In 
this  fact,  the  almost  feminine  passivity  we  are  likely 
to  figure  as  the  total  account  of  his  character,  reveals 
the  mighty  underwork  and  robust  vigor  of  a  really 
immortal  confidence  and  tenacity.1 

By  the  power  of  Christ,  Bushnell  means  much 
the  same  as  that  which  is  now  termed  his 
personality,  a  power  which  his  resurrection  both 
attested  and  released. 

It  is  true  that  on  the  metaphysical  side 
Bushnell's  Christology  is  far  from  convincing. 
He  gives  an  undue  prominence  to  the  Virgin 
Birth,  based  on  an  uncritical  acceptance  of  the 
narratives.  He  reopens  the  chasm  between  the 
divine  and  human,  which  he  had  closed  by 
declaring  man  himself  a  supernatural  being, 
and  places  Jesus  wholly  and  unreservedly  on 
the  divine  side  of  it.  He  fails  to  distinguish  the 
Jesus  of  History  from  the  Christ  of  Faith.  It 
is  true  that  these  defects  are  characteristic  of 

1  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice,  p.  218. 


INTRODUCTION  29 

the  period  in  which  he  wrote  but  they  are 
detractive  and  stand  in  the  way  of  a  fuller  ap- 
preciation of  the  otherwise  unequaled  mastery 
of  his  portrait  of  Jesus  Christ  in  his  moral  and 
personal  aspects.  Yet  there  is  a  freshness  and 
originality  not  only  in  his  conception  of  Christ 
but  pervading  all  of  his  thought  that  mark  him 
as  one  of  those  creative  minds  whose  mission 
is  to  enkindle  others.  The  presence  of  such  a 
mind  often  means  more  of  gain  to  the  world 
than  either  fullness  or  finality  of  thought. 

VIII 

Judged  by  the  standards  of  system  and  con- 
sistency Horace  Bushnell  cannot  be  termed  a 
great  theologian.  He  was  rather  prophet,  or, 
as  he  has  often  been  called,  poet,  than  theologian, 
in  the  accepted  sense.  He  was  too  impulsive, 
too  vivid,  to  hold  himself  to  exactness. 
"Finding  the  air  full  of  wings  about  me, 
buoyant  and  free,  I  let  them  come  under  and 
lift,"  he  writes.  As  has  been  said  of  him,  he 
thought  first  and  read  afterward.  It  might 
be  added  that  he  spoke  his  first  thoughts, 
without  waiting  for  his  second,  much  less  for 
his  third  thoughts;  and  it  is  third  thoughts  that 
count  for  most  in  any  field  of  truth. 


30  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Though  not  a  systematic  theologian,  how- 
ever, Bushnell  was  much  more.  He  was  an 
open-minded  one;  and  open-mindedness  is  too 
rare  a  virtue  in  theology.  In  bringing  out  his 
second  volume  on  the  Atonement,  "Forgiveness 
and  Law"  (1874),  which  was  intended  not 
merely  to  supplement  but  in  a  measure  to  sub- 
stitute a  belated  idea  for  the  latter  part  of 
"The  Vicarious  Sacrifice,"  Bushnell  uses  these 
noble  and  self-effacing  words  which  might  well 
be  pondered  by  the  whole  brotherhood  of 
theologians : 

It  seems  to  be  required  of  me  by  the  unexpected 
arrival  of  fresh  light  [John  Robinson  redevivus}  that 
I  should  make  a  large  revision  of  my  former  treatise 
entitled  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice.  .  .  .  Having  under- 
taken to  find  the  truth  on  this  great  subject  at 
whatever  cost  I  am  not  willing  to  be  excused  from 
further  obligation  because  the  truth  appears  to  be 
outgrowing  my  published  expositions.  There  is 
no  reason,  personal  to  myself,  why  I  should  be 
fastened  to  my  own  small  measures,  when  larger 
measures  are  given  me.  Besides,  how  shall  man  ever 
get  rid  of  his  old  sins,  when  he  cannot  let  go  his 
little  outgrown  opinions? 

If  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  "scientific  spirit" 
in  theology  —  a  spirit  not  so  far  from  that  of 
the  Kingdom  as  Jesus  defines  it  —  surely  it 
appears  here  in  one  of  its  characteristic  aspects, 


INTRODUCTION  31 

the  willingness  to  substitute  a  later  hypothesis 
for  an  earlier. 

Bushnell  was  ever  a  learner,  a  growing  mind 
to  the  end,  a  true  progressive,  in  the  sense  of 
steadily  making  progress  on  himself,  leaving 
small  measures  for  larger,  deep  truth  for  deeper. 
Through  all  the  storms  of  controversy  which 
raged  about  him  he  remained  calm  and  unem- 
bittered  and  kept  the  "mind  of  Christ."  The 
ethical  integrity  of  his  character  matched  that 
of  his  thought.  The  men  who  supported  him 
and  the  theology  for  which  he  stood,  Henry  M. 
Goodwin,1  A.  S.  Cheseborough,  Leonard  Bacon, 
and  others,  were  conscious  that  they  were 
sustaining  no  reed  shaken  by  the  wind  but 
honoring  a  sturdy  and  independent  spirit  and 
one  who  was  doing  for  them  more  than  they 
could  possibly  do  for  him.  They  and  the  de- 
voted company  of  younger  men  whom  he  won 
to  himself  in  Hartford  and  elsewhere  —  includ- 
ing Joseph  Twitchell,  Edwin  P.  Parker,  Theo- 

xDr.  Goodwin's  contribution  to  progressive  theology  de- 
serves larger  recognition.  His  scholarly  and  thoughtful  volume 
Christ  and  Humanity  (1875),  inscribed  to  Horace  Bushnell, 
"whose  profound  and  sanctified  genius  has  made  the  world  his 
debtor,"  is  based  upon  the  doctrine  of  "the  essential  unity  of  the 
divine  and  human  as  furnishing  the  ground  and  possibility  of  the 
indwelling  of  God  in  man,  and  so  of  forming  a  true  humanity 
according  to  the  ideal  presented  in  the  man  Jesus"  (p.  402). 


32  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

dore  T.  Munger,  and  Washington  Gladden  — 
were  drawn  as  much  by  his  noble  and  com- 
panionable personality  as  by  his  luminous  and 
invigorating  thought.  They  found  in  him  what 
thousands  have  found  who  never  saw  his  face, 
the  leadership  and  comradeship  of  a  free,  fear- 
less, and  devoted  lover  and  interpreter  of  truth. 


IX 

Next  to  Horace  Bushnell  the  greatest  liberator 
of  American  theological  thought  was  Henry 
Ward  Beecher.  Like  Bushnell  a  child  of  the 
Pilgrim  heritage,  his  revolt  from  the  Old 
Theology  was  all  the  more  significant  in  that  it 
was  against  doctrines  ably  taught  and  defended 
by  his  own  father,  who,  though  a  battler  for  a 
modified  Calvinism,  was  far  too  severe  in  his 
theology  for  his  sons.1  His  theology,  like  Bush- 
nell's,  grew  out  of  a  mystical  experience  and, 
like  his,  it  centered  in  Christ.  He  too  had  his 
mystical  morning  vision  "when  it  pleased  God 
to  reveal  to  my  wandering  soul  the  idea  that 

x  The  high  repute  gained  by  Henry  Ward  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  obscure  the  notable  service  of  his  talented  brothers. 
Edward,  especially,  was  a  vigorous  underminer  of  theological 
ruins  and  in  his  Age  of  Conflict  and  Age  of  Concord  sought  through 
his  doctrine  of  pre-existence  to  restore  the  conceptions  of  human 
freedom  and  divine  justice  which  Calvinism  had  obscured. 


INTRODUCTION  33 

it  was  his  nature  to  love  a  man  in  his  sins  for 
the  sake  of  helping  him  out  of  them"  and  when 
he  felt  that  "nothing  could  praise  Him  enough 
for  the  revelation  of  such  a  nature  as  that  in 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  x  From  that  time  on 
Beecher,  like  Paul,  had  his  "glorying  in  Christ 
Jesus  in  things  pertaining  to  God." 2  Christ 
filled  his  horizon  —  to  its  infinite  enlargement. 
He  saw  God,  man,  life,  nature,  history,  futurity, 
everything,  through  Christ. 

It  is  customary  to  regard  Beecher  as  first  and 
last  a  preacher  and  not  at  all  as  a  theologian. 
Such  a  view  of  him  is  partial  and  inadequate. 
It  is  true  that  his  pulpit  was  his  throne.  He  was 
first  of  all  a  preacher.  And  yet  there  was  as 
much  theology  in  Beecher' s  little  finger  as  in 
the  loins  of  the  average  popular  preacher.  It 
was  theology  of  his  own  stamp,  yet  by  no  means 
vagrant  or  erratic  or  out  of  touch  with  "the 
faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,"  —  and  kept 
by  them  only  on  condition  of  its  being  put  to 
usury.  Like  Bushnell,  he  was  an  intuitive 
rather  than  a  reflective  or  constructive  thinker. 
He  divined  his  own  mission  when  he  said  that 
for  many  years  he  had  been  "hauling  bricks 

1  Lyman  Abbott  and  others:  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  p.  36., 
a  Rom.  15  : 17. 


34  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

for  the  new  theology."  His  bricks  have  proved 
sound  and  serviceable  and  have  been  built  as 
lively  stones  into  a  spiritual  temple. 


If  one  wishes  for  a  characteristic  expression 
of  Beecher's  theology,  as  it  flowed  pulsing  and 
harmonic  from  his  soul,  let  him  read  his  state- 
ment of  belief_made  to  the  New  York  and 
Brooklyn  Association  of  Ministers  upon  the 
occasion  of  his  withdrawal  from  that  body  on 
account  of  suspicions  of  his  orthodoxy. x  Here 
is  something  unique  in  the  history  of  American 
theology.  The  report  of  the  event  states  that 
Beecher  seated  himself  on  the  platform  and 
in  a  familiar  yet  eloquent  way  poured  out  his 
whole  soul  to  his  hearers.  "Beginning  in  a 
conversational  tone  and  never  raising  his  voice 
very  high,  the  speaker  soon  passed  over  the 
negative  side  of  his  subject  and  began  to  set 
forth  his  affirmative  beliefs.  As  these  gradually 
led  him  to  recall  his  own  personal  and  inward 
experiences,  he  seemed  to  lose  consciousness  of 
his  audience.  ...  He  was  carried  away  by  one 
of  those  very  inspirations  which  he  was  describ- 

1  Reported  in  The  Christian  Union;  republished  in  Lyman 
Abbott's  Henry  Ward  Beecher^  p.  479. 


INTRODUCTION  35 

ing  and  when  he  spoke  of  the  revelation  of 
Christ  to  himself  as  one  who  loved  men  because 
they  needed  love,  his  face  underwent  a  mar- 
velous change;  it  seemed  transparent  with  a 
radiant  light." 

"Spiritual  Barbarism"  was  the  subject  upon 
which  he  had  been  announced  to  speak  and  he 
instanced  among  other  forms  of  it  the  chapters 
in  the  Westminster  Confession  concerning  de- 
crees, election,  reprobation,  as  exhibiting  "ex- 
traordinary specimens  of  spiritual  barbarism." 
From  this,  after  alluding  to  the  suspicions  of  his 
orthodoxy  and  the  reasons  for  them,  he  passed 
on  to  present  a  statement  of  his  positive  beliefs. 
He  prefaced  it  with  a  frank  comment  concerning 
the  relation  of  his  theology  to  his  own  tempera- 
ment: 

I  am  impetuous.  I  am  intense  at  times  on  subjects" 
that  deeply  move  me.  I  feel  as  though  all  the  ocean 
were  not  strong  enough  to  be  the  power  behind  my 
words,  nor  all  the  thunders  that  were  in  the  heavens, 
and  it  is  of  necessity  that  such  a  nature  as  that 
should  give  such  intensity  at  times  to  parts  of  doc- 
trine as  to  exaggerate  them  when  you  come  to  bring 
them  into  connection  with  a  more  rounded  out  and 
balanced  view. 

Then  came  a  gleam  of  light  upon  his  early  ex- 
perience : 


36  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

I  was  sympathetic  by  nature,  I  was  loving,  I  was 
mercurial,  I  was  versatile,  I  was  imaginative.  I  was 
not  a  poet  executively,  but  sympathetically.  I  was  in 
union  with  th'e  whole  universal  life  and  beauty  of 
God's  world  and  with  all  human  life.  My  earliest 
religious  training  was  at  home.  My  father's  public 
teaching  may  be  called  alleviated  Calvinism.  Even 
under  that  the  iron  entered  my  soul.  There  were 
days  and  weeks  in  which  the  pall  of  death  over  the 
universe  could  not  have  made  it  darker  to  my  eyes 
than  those  in  which  I  thought,  "If  you  are  elected 
you  will  be  saved,  and  if  you  are  not  elected  you  will 
be  damned,  and  there  is  no  hope  for  you." 

Following  this  rehearsal  of  his  early  ex- 
perience, he  gave  a  description  of  the  impression 
of  theology  which  he  formed  in  his  student  days, 
which  he  described  as  an  "abyss  of  whirling 
controversies  that  seemed  to  me  to  be  filled 
with  all  manner  of  evil  things,  with  everything 
but  Christ."  Then,  on  that  memorable  day 
"whose  high  sun  and  glowing  firmament  and 
waving  trees  are  vivid  yet"  came  his  revelation 
of  Christ  "as  being  God  because  He  knew  how 
to  love  a  sinner."  Christ  thus  became  the  center 
of  his  preaching. 

I  chopped  a  little  of  the  regular  orthodox  theology, 
that  I  might  sprinkle  it  with  the  meal  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  But  my  horizon  grew  larger  and  larger 
in  that  one  idea  of  Christ. 


INTRODUCTION  '  37 

Emerging  upon  a  more  detailed  doctrinal 
statement  he  took  up  the  question,  "What 
doctrines  are  fundamental  to  the  formation  of 
Christian  character  and  to  its  complete  de- 
velopment?"—  a  test  of  a  sound  theology 
which  the  dogmatic  theologian  has  not  often 
thought  to  apply.  The  first  of  such  doctrines 
he  finds  to  be  that  of  a  Personal  God: 

Not  seeable,  not  known  by  the  senses,  the  full 
circuit  of  His  being  not  discerned  except  by  moral 
intuition,  by  the  range  of  susceptibility,  when  the 
down  shining  of  the  Holy  Ghost  comes  to  me  I 
know  by  an  evidence  within  myself  that  is  unspeak- 
ably more  convincing  to  me  than  eye  or  hand  or 
ear  can  be,  that  there  is  a  God  and  that  He  is  my 
God. 

Other  fundamental  Christian  doctrines  as  he 
outlines  them  are  freshly  and  vitally  conceived 
and  by  no  means  out  of  harmony  with  historic 
Christian  doctrine.  He  affirms  belief  in  the 
Trinity  as  "not  contrary  either  to  reason  or 
the  analogies  of  nature";  in  Christ,  as  "God 
manifest  in  the  flesh";  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  "uni- 
versal, constant,  imminent";  in  Providence; 
Miracles,  "possible  now"  but  "real  in  the  times 
gone  by";  in  Regeneration;  Inspiration  of 
the  Bible  as  "the  record  of  the  steps  of  God 
in  revealing  Himself  and  His  will  to  man"; 


38  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

in  Atonement,  as  in  Christ  himself,  and  not  a 
philosophy  of  His  nature  or  work;  and  in 
Future  Punishment  as  involved  in  "the  nature 
of  the  consequences  of  transgression." 

There  is  reality  here,  refreshing  freedom  from 
cant  and  commonplace.  The  whole  is  consist- 
ently, intensely,  yet  not  narrowly  Christo- 
centric.  This  concentration  _of  emphasis  upon 
Christ  appears  with  peculiar  vividness  in  these 
words  concerning  prayer: 

I  cannot  pray  to  the  Father  except  through 
Christ;  I  pray  to  Christ.  I  must.  The  way  the 
Spirit  of  God  works  with  me  makes  it  necessary 
that  I  should  have  something  I  can  clasp,  and  to 
me  the  Father  is  vague.  I  believe  in  a  Father  but 
the  definition  of  Him  in  my  vision  is  not  to  me  what 
the  portraiture  of  Christ  is.  Though  I  say  Father, 
I  am  thinking  of  Christ  all  the  time.  That  is  my 
feeling,  that  is  my  life,  and  so  I  have  preached,  so  I 
have  taught  those  that  came  from  Unitarian  in- 
struction —  never  asking  them  to  a  technical  argu- 
ment or  proof,  but  simply  saying,  "You  say  you 
can  pray  to  the  Father,  but  cannot  to  Christ.  You 
are  praying  to  Christ;  you  don't  know  it.  That 
which  you  call  Father  is  that  which  is  interpreted 
in  Christ." 

It  would  seem  impossible  that  any  associa- 
tion of  Christian  ministers  could  accept  a 
resignation  from  its  membership  based  upon 


INTRODUCTION  39 

such  a  statement  as  this,  especially  as  it  was 
made  "in  the  greatest  love  and  sympathy" 
and  only  in  order  that  this  magnanimous  soul 
might  not  lay  upon  anyone  else  the  responsi- 
bility of  his  views.  Nor  was  the  Association 
guilty  of  such  action.  It  asked  him  to  reconsider 
and  withdraw  his  resignation.  The  incident  is 
illustrative  of  the  theological  situation  at  the 
time,  as  well  as  of  the  extent  of  Beecher's 
service  in  vitalizing  and  expanding  American 
theology. 

The  point  at  which  Beecher  did  most  to 
bring  the  mind  of  the  Church  into  line  with  the 
advance  of  thought  was  probably  that  at  which 
theology  seemed  to  conflict  with  evolution, — 
whose  advent  he  hailed  with  enthusiastic 
hospitality.  It  would  be  difficult  to  parallel  the 
opportunity,  or  the  skill  with  which  it  was  used, 
afforded  to  this  teacher  of  the  people  when, 
jon  the  6th  of  January,  1883,  he  gave  for  the 
first  time  his  lecture  on  "Evolution  and  Revela- 
tion" in  crowded  Cooper  Union  Hall.  It  was  a 
sagacious  and  broad-minded  interpretation  of 
evolution,  defined  as  "the  teaching  of  the  divine 
method  of  creation  as  gradual,"  in  terms  of  its 
religious  and  theological  implications  and  values. 
Such  popular  expositions  of  theology  may  not 


40  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

have  done  much  to  convince  the  scribes  and 
pharisees,  but  they  helped  greatly  to  save 
religion  from  going  down  with  the  sinking  of 
decadent  forms  of  doctrine,  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  were  watching  to  see  how  Chris- 
tianity would  adjust  itself  to  the  new  age. 

The  greatness  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  will 
not  be  fully  understood  until  he  is  recognized 
as,  in  the  words  of  Phillips  Brooks,  "a  great 
leader  in  the  theological  world,  believing  in  the 
Divine  Christ  and  in  eternal  hope  for  mankind," 
as  well  as  "a  great  preacher,  a  great  leader,  a 
great  patriot,  a  great  man." x  The  freedom 
and  force  with  which  he  uttered  himself  upon 
subjects  held  to  be  dangerous  and  subversive 
by  the  obscurantists  made  it  easier  for  every 
man  in  the  pulpit  to  be  true  to  his  own  convic- 
tion at  a  time  when  much  depended  upon  the 
readiness  of  theology  to  leave  her  "low-vaulted 
past"  and  build  "more  stately  mansions"  for 
the  soul. 

XI 

Next  to  Bushnell  and  Beecher,  the  two  most 
liberalizing  and  far-reaching  voices  in  American 
theology  were  probably  those  of  William  E. 

'  A.  V.  G.  Allen:  Lift  of  Phillips  Brooks,  vol.  II,  p.  646. 


INTRODUCTION  41 

Channing  (1780-1842)  in  an  earlier  day  and 
Phillips  Brooks  (1835-1893)  in  a  later  —  both 
outside  of  the  orthodox  ranks,  yet  both  deriving 
from  its  lineage  and  sharing  to  the  full  its  noble 
heritage  of  intellectual  and  moral  strength. 

Channing  was  a  great  ethical  reformer  and 
doctrinal  purifier.  He  was  like  fuller's  soap  and  a 
refiner's  fire  to  the  orthodox  theology  of  his  day. 
Yet  his  mission  was  that  of  liberation  from  the 
narrower  into  the  larger  religious  truth  rather 
than  a  constructive  contribution  to  theology. 
There  was  one  great  truth  of  which  he  was  the 
outstanding  prophet, —  the  dignity  of  human 
nature.  His  unrivaled  emphasis  upon  human 
worth  has  now  become  the  recognized  bulwark 
of  his  title  to  a  lasting  place  in  American  theol- 
ogy, though  it  was  not,  in  essence,  so  unpre- 
cedented as  it  is  often  regarded.  Channing's 
conception  of  human  nature  is  indicated  in 
these  words: 

Am  I  asked  for  my  conception  of  the  dignity  of  a 
human  being?  I  should  say  that  it  consists,  first,  in 
that  spiritual  principle  called  sometimes  the  reason, 
sometimes  the  conscience,  which,  rising  above  what 
is  local  and  temporary,  discovers  immutable  truth 
and  eternal  right,  which  in  the  midst  of  imperfect 
things,  conceives  of  perfection,  which  is  universal 
and  important,' standing  in  direct  opposition  to  the 


42  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

partial,  selfish  principles  of  human  nature;  which 
says  to  me  with  authority  that  my  neighbor  is  as 
precious  as  myself  and  his  rights  as  sacred  as  my 
own;  which  commands  me  to  receive  all  truth, 
however  it  may  war  with  my  pride,  and  to  do  all 
justice,  however  it  may  conflict  with  my  interest; 
and  which  calls  me  to  rejoice  with  love  in  all  that  is 
beautiful,  good,  holy,  happy,  in  whatever  being 
these  attributes  may  be  found.  This  principle  is  a 
ray  of  divinity  in  man.1 

Remote  as  this  is  from  the  language  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  and  Samuel  Hopkins,  it  reveals  an 
underlying  union  both  with  them  and  with 
Bushnell  and  Beecher  and  their  successors. 
For  these  all  believed,  in  some  sense,  in  a  "ray 
of  divinity"  imparting  eternal  worth  to  human 
nature.  Edwards  and  Hopkins  called  it  "the 
Holy  Spirit,"  Bushnell  and  Beecher  the  "Logos" 
or  "Word,"  others  "the  Eternal  Christ,"  while 
Channing  left  it  so  unattached  and  vague  as  to 
be  readily  confused  with  man's  own  nature, 
conceived  as  isolated  and  independent.  There- 
from, in  the  hands  of  later  Unitarians  who  failed 
to  link  our  higher  nature  with  even  "a  ray  of 
divinity,"  issued  a  new  type  of  rationalism  from 
which  Unitarianism  has  found  it  hard  to  re- 
cover. Yet,  despite  limitations  in  discriminative 
1  John  W.  Chadwick:  William  £11  fry  Channing,  pp.  248,  249, 


INTRODUCTION  43 

and  constructive  power,  Channing  was  un- 
doubtedly one  of  the  greatest  leaders  in  genuine 
theological  progress,  especially  on  ethical  lines, 
whom  American  Christianity  has  produced.1 

Phillips  Brooks  coming  so  much  later  than 
Channing  belongs  among  the  liberated  as  well 
as  the  liberators.  He  was  the  consummate 
flower  of  the  Pilgrim  faith,  blooming  late,  after 
it  had  struck  its  roots  deep  into  the  harsh  New 
England  soil  and  had  weathered  the  storms  of 
trial  and  controversy  and  been  liberalized  by 
the  slow  processes  of  hard  thinking  and  noble 
living.  In  its  serener  years  this  virile  New  Eng- 
land faith,  with  its  asperities  and  austerities 
mellowed  but  its  vitality  unimpaired,  issued 
in  this  peerless  son  of  Pilgrim  seed.  The  blood 
of  John  Cotton  flowed  in  his  veins.  His  parents 
had  passed  through  the  icy  intellectual 
invigoration  of  Unitarianism  into  the  aes- 
thetic warmth  and  symbolism  of  that  church 
which  his  ancestors  had  renounced  for  its 
tyrannies  and  "mummeries"  but  which  now, 

xThe  writer  regrets  that  necessary  limitations  prevent  his 
including  an  account  of  the  contribution  of  American  Unitarian- 
ism  as  a  whole  to  religious  progress.  It  has,  however,  received 
ample  treatment,  as,  e.g.,  in  George  Willis  Cooke's  Unitarianism 
in  America.  See,  also,  the  present  writer's  "The  Pilgrim  Ter- 
centenary and  Theological  Progress,"  Harvard  Theological  Review, 
vol.  XI,  July,  1918. 


44  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

purified  and  humbled,  afforded  nourishment 
and  opportunity  to  his  exuberant  genius. 
Bishop  Brooks,  too,  was  intuitional,  mystical, 
Christ-centered,  in  his  theology;  yet  with  a 
definite,  unified,  intellectual  framework  for  his 
faith.  In  his  Bohlen  lectures  he  summarized  the 
characteristics  of  Christianity  thus: 

A  poetic  conception  of  the  world  we  live  in,  a 
willing  acceptance  of  mystery,  an  expectation  of 
progress  by  development,  an  absence  of  fastidious- 
ness that  comes  from  a  sense  of  the  possibilities  of 
all  humanity  and  a  perpetual  enlargement  of  thought 
from  the  arbitrary  into  the  essential  —  these,  then, 
I  think,  are  the  intellectual  characteristics  which 
Christ's  disciples  gathered  from  their  Master.1 

These  are  the  characteristics  which  this  liberal- 
ized Puritan  himself  manifested  in  all  the  un- 
assuming splendor  and  scope  of  his  wide- 
reaching  influence. 

Many  notable  liberators  of  American  the- 
ology, in  various  Christian  communions  — 
several  of  them  quite  early  —  prepared  the  way 
for  the  constructive  work  which  was  to  follow: 
liberals  like  Charles  Chauncy,  early  critic  of 
revivalism  and  advocate  of  Universalism a 

1  The  Influence  of  Jesus,  p.  258. 

a  See  Williston  Walker:  Ten  New  England  Leaders. 


INTRODUCTION  45 

(1705-1787);  radicals  like  Theodore  Parker 
(i 810-60),  who  crashed  through  the  older 
doctrines  with  ponderous  blows,  heedless  of 
who  or  what  suffered,  yet  who  had  also  his 
large  and  positive  convictions;  extremists  like 
Hosea  Ballou  (1771-1852),  aflame  with  zeal 
against  the  doctrine  of  endless  punishment; 
mystics  like  Emerson,  who  diffused  catholicity 
and  "nature"  so  impartially  that  it  became 
not  a  little  difficult  to  tell  where  faith  leaves 
off  and  naturalism  begins,  yet  whose  influence 
has  been  a  vast  spiritualizing  force;  preachers, 
like  Leonard  Swing,  and  scholars,  like  Ezra 
Abbott  and  Joseph  H.  Thayer  who  dethroned 
the  idol  of  a  static,  inerrant  scripture  that  the 
voice  of  the  Spirit  might  again  be  heard.1 


XII 

Outside  of  ecclesiastical  circles  and  contro- 
versies has  been  also  a  company  of  teachers 
and  writers  whose  influence  has  worked  noise- 
lessly but  powerfully  to  liberate  and  liberalize 
theology:  the  representatives  of  philosophy, 
science,  and  literature.  It  will  be  impossible, 

1  Other  leaders  of  an  advancing  theology  are  referred  to  in 
chapter  VII. 


46  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

manifestly,  to  do  more  than  touch  upon  their 
contribution  here. 

Philosophy  has  had  a  far  greater  influence 
upon  theology  than  the  latter  has  ever  realized. 
The  philosophical  and  theological  realms  lie 
very  close  to  one  another.  Interest  in  the  one 
flows  over  into  the  other.  Theology  was  the 
early  pathway  to  philosophy.1  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  so  many  American  philosophers  were 
from  the  ranks  of  the  ministry,  among  them 
Jonathan  Edwards,  greatest  of  our  philosophers, 
Samuel  Johnson,  the  chief  representative  of 
Berkeleyanism  in  this  country,  James  Marsh, 
John  Witherspoon,  R.  W.  Emerson,  James 
McCosh,  Noah  Porter,  Laurens  P.  Hickok, 
Joseph  Torrey,  Henry  A.  P.  Torrey,  Julius  H. 
Seelye,  Charles  W.  Shields,  George  T.  Ladd. 
Mark  Hopkins  was  a  licensed  preacher,  George 
H.  Howison  and  George  H.  Palmer  studied 
at  theological  seminaries,  and  Borden  P. 
Bowne  was  both  lay  preacher  and  theologian. 
These  men  were  almost  without  exception 
idealists  and  they,  and  most  other  American 

1  "To  the  interest  of  the  people  (of  America)  in  theology 
has  been  due  a  dominant  tendency  in  thought,  as  well  as  in  fact, 
in  large  measure,  that  we  have  any  philosophy  at  all."  A.  C. 
Armstrong:  "Philosophy  in  the  United  States,"  Educational 
Review,  June,  1895,  p.  3. 


INTRODUCTION  47 

philosophers  up  to  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  including  Josiah  Royce  and  William 
James,  have  been  vitally  in  league  with  Chris- 
tianity and  have  greatly  influenced  religious 
thought  in  the  direction  of  intellectual  vigor 
and  breadth. 

XIII 

As  an  instance  of  the  close  relation  between 
philosophical  and  religious  thought  in  America 
one  may  cite  James  Marsh  x  (1794-1842),  presi- 
dent and  professor  of  philosophy  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Vermont,  the  most  idealistic  and 
stimulating  teacher  of  philosophy  of  his  day  in 
America.  President  Marsh  was  a  Platonist  and 
Kantian,  but  above  all  a  most  ardent  and  loyal 
disciple  of  Coleridge.  There  are  few  as  fine 
examples  of  intelligent  and  effective  disciple- 
ship  in  the  history  of  philosophy  as  that  of 
Marsh  for  the  English  thinker  whom  he  never 
saw  and  who  never  gave  him  the  slightest 
recognition.  He  introduced  Coleridge  to  Ameri- 
can readers  through  the  "Aids  to  Reflection" 
which  he  published  at  Burlington  in  1829 
(second  edition  1840)  accompanied  by  his  well- 

1  See  Memoir  and  Remains  of  James  Marsh,  edited  by  Joseph 
Torrey;  also  J.  W.  Buckham:  "James  Marsh  and  Coleridge," 
Bibliothfca  Sacra,  April,  1904. 


48  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

known  "Preliminary  Essay."1  It  was  a  copy 
of  Marsh's  Coleridge,  in  all  probability,  of 
which  Dr.  Munger  wrote:  "It  may  almost  be 
said  that  it  is  to  this  book  we  are  indebted  for 
Bushnell";2  and,  "This  book  stood  by  him  to 
the  end  and  in  old  age  he  confessed  greater 
indebtedness  to  it  than  to  any  other  book  save 
the  Bible."3  Emerson,  too,  and  the  "Tran- 
scendentalists  "  were  more  indebted  to  Coleridge 
than  to  any  other  modern  philosopher.  An 
influence  almost  as  great  was  exerted  by  the 
"Aids"  upon  a  number  of  other  of  the  most 
thoughtful  of  American  theologians  and  minis- 
ters, including  such  contrasted  minds  as  James 
Freeman  Clarke  and  W.  G.  T.  Shedd,  and 
through  Marsh  and  Bushnell  Coleridge  spoke  to 
Washington  Gladden  and  others  and  through 
them  to  the  people;  so  that  Coleridge  may  be 


1  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  because  Marsh  made 
Coleridge  his  persona  he  has  no  word  of  his  own.  On  the  con- 
trary he  infused  into  his  students  the  "spiritual  philosophy" 
through  which  the  reign  of  the  prevailing  Lockean  materialism 
in  America  was  broken.  Marsh  also  helped  to  introduce  a  more 
intelligent  idea  of  the  Bible  by  publishing  a  translation  of  Herder's 
Spirit  of  Hebrew  Poetry.  The  "  Preliminary  Essay  "  is  republished 
in  the  new  "Bohn"  Coleridge. 

3  Horace  Bushnell,  p.  46. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  47.  "  It  was  this  work  which  did  most  to  intro- 
duce the  modified  German  philosophy  into  our  country"  (Wood- 
bridge  Riley:  American  Thought,  p.  170). 


INTRODUCTION  49 

said  to  be  the  philosopher  of  the  progressive 
school  of  theology  in  America.  This  does  not 
necessarily  mean  that  American  philosophy  and 
theology  owe  their  idealism  and  intuitivism  to 
Coleridge  but  rather  that  they  found  in  him 
their  philosophical  exponent  and  authority. 

James  Marsh  was  the  type  and  forerunner  of 
a  succession  of  philosophical  teachers  in  this 
country  who  linked  philosophy  and  theology 
in  close  kinship.  It  would  be  difficult  to  over- 
estimate the  idealizing  and  broadening  influence 
upon  religious  thought  in  America  of  these  men, 
occupying  the  chairs  of  "moral  and  intellectual 
philosophy"  in  the  older  colleges  and  univer- 
sities during  the  nineteenth  century.  Many  of 
the  finest  and  ablest  young  men  entering  the 
professions,  especially  the  ministry,  during  those 
years  were  impelled  and  governed  by  the  high 
ideals  of  truth  and  life  imparted  by  such  men  as 
Noah  Porter  at  Yale,  James  McCosh  at  Prince- 
ton, Francis  Bowen,  Josiah  Royce  and  G.  H. 
Palmer  at  Harvard,  Mark  Hopkins  and  John 
Bascom  at  Williams,  Charles  E.  Carman  at 
Amherst,  Laurens  P.  Hickok  at  Union  College, 
Joseph  and  Henry  Torrey  at  Vermont  Uni- 
versity, Borden  P.  Bowne  at  Boston  Uni- 
versity, George  S.  Morris  at  Johns  Hopkins, 


SO  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

George  H.  Howison  at  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia. Much  of  the  same  philosophical  idealism 
was  infused  into  the  ideals  and  methods  of  the 
public  schools  of  the  country  by  that  dynamic 
educational  idealist,  Commissioner  William  T. 
Harris.  Students  going  out  from  classrooms  in 
which  ethics  and  theism  of  a  high  order  were 
taught  were  not  disposed  to  content  themselves, 
or  allow  others  to  be  contented,  with  crude  and 
contradictory  theological  ideas.  Indeed  these 
philosophical  teachers  were  theologians  as  well 
as  philosophers  and  while  they  did  not  take  up 
the  distinctive  Christian  doctrines  as  such,  their 
discussions  were  largely  concerned  with  the 
same  problems  as  those  of  theology.1 

XIV 

To  the  liberating  influence  of  philosophy  upon 
religious  thought  should  be  added  that  of 
natural  science,  as  taught  by  such  scientists  as 
Louis  Agassiz,  Asa  Gray,  Joseph  Le  Conte, 
Nathaniel  Shaler,  J.  M.  Tyler,  and  William 
North  Rice.  John  Fiske,  in  his  "The  Idea  of 
God,"  and  "The  Destiny  of  Man,"  contributed 

a  Studies  by  the  writer  of  the  contributions  of  two  of  these 
philosophers,  Josiah  Royce  and  G.  H.  Howison,  to  religious 
thought  may  be  found  in  The  Harvard  Theological  Review,  vols. 
VIII  and  IX. 


INTRODUCTION  51 

largely  to  this  influence.  Such  men,  of  large 
mental  vision  and  deep  Christian  faith,  helped 
inestimably  to  avert  the  threatened  conflict 
between  science  and  theology.  Not  yet  has  the 
Church  come  to  realize  how  much  she  owes  to 
men  of  natural  science  for  what  they  have 
indirectly  contributed  to  the  rectification  and 
enlargement  of  theology. 

Literature,  too,  has  instilled  her  humane  and 
broadening  views  into  religious  thought.  Poetry, 
especially,  has  taught  the  essentials  of  Christian 
doctrine  with  a  subtle  and  persuasive  grace  that 
has  quietly  robbed  the  creeds  of  their  rigors  and 
inhumanities.  One  need  only  instance  the 
influence  of  John  G.  Whittier  who,  like  Tenny- 
son in  England,  has  done  as  much  if  not  more 
than  any  theologian  to  ring  out  "the  ancient 
forms  of  party  strife"  and  to  ring  in  "the 
Christ  that  is  to  be."  „; 

Many  of  our  novelists,  too, —  one  need  only 
mention,  as  an  example,  Hawthorne,  lineal  but 
emancipated  son  of  Puritan  ancestry, —  have 
not  only  liberated  but  deepened  American 
religious  thought.  So,  too,  have  essayists  like 
Lowell,  Curtis,  Holmes,  and,  in  their  own  way, 
certain  of  those  subtle  but  potent  molders  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  the  editors.  One  cannot  but  think  with 


52  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

gratitude  of  the  humanizing  of  theology,  direct 
or  indirect,  exerted  by  such  men  as  Samuel 
Bowles,  William  Hayes  Ward,  and  Henry 
Mills  Alden,  the  latter  the  author  of  that  rare 
work  of  mystical  theology,  "God  in  His 
World." 

s  Although  in  the  following  pages  attention 
is  turned  chiefly  to  a  definite  line  of  progress 
and  a  single  school  of  American"  religious 
thought,  it  should  not"  be  forgotten  that 
through  many  minds  and  means,  "by  diverse 
portions  and  in  diverse  manners,"  the  larger 
revelation  comes. 


CHAPTER   II 
THEODORE  T.  MUNGER 


THEODORE  THORNTON  MUNGER 

1830.  March  5.     Birth  in  Bainbridge,  N.Y. 

1847.  Entered  Yale  College. 

1851.  Graduated  from  Yale  College. 

1855.  Entered  Andover  Theological  Seminary. 

1856.  February  6.  Ordained  pastor  of  Village  Church,  Dorches- 

ter, Mass. 
1864.    January  6.  Installed  pastor  of  Centre  Church,  Haverhill, 

Mass. 
1864.    October  12.    Married  in  Haverhill,  Elizabeth  K.  Duncan, 

who  died  October  3,  1886. 

1871.    June  14.     Installed  pastor  of  Eliot  Church,  Lowell,  Mass. 
1875.    Went  to  California  in  search  of  health. 
1875.    Organized  Congregational  Church,  San  Jose,  Cal. 
1877.    December  ii.    Installed  pastor  of  Congregational  Church 

of  North  Adams,  Mass. 
1885.    November  19.    Installed  pastor  of  United  Church,  New 

Haven,  Conn. 

1887.    Made  Fellow  of  Yale  University. 

1889.    March  5.    Married  Harriet  King  Osgood  of  Salem,  Mass. 
1898.    Lecturer  at  Harvard  University. 
1901.    Made  Pastor  Emeritus  of  United  Church. 

1904.  Received  degree  of  Doctor  o  f  Divinity  from  Harvard  Uni- 

versity. 

1905.  Elected  member  of  American  Institute  of  Arts  and  Letters. 
1908.    Received  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Yale  Univer- 
sity. 

1910.    January  II.    Death  in  New  Haven. 
1910.    November  i.    Dedication  of  Memorial  Tablet  in  Woolsey 
Hall,  Yale  University. 


CHAPTER  II 

THEODORE  T.  MUNGER 

THE  NEW  THEOLOGY  DEFINED  AND  RELATED 

FOLLOWING  the  pioneers  of  progressive  religious 
thought  in  America  came  a  company  of  con- 
structive thinkers  who  built  upon  their  founda- 
tions, deepened  their  insights,  and  extended 
their  conclusions,  thus  constructing  what  is 
termed,  rather  loosely,  the  "New  Theology." 
Among  these  none  fulfilled  a  more  courageous 
and  benign  service  than  "the  New  Haven  seer/* 
Theodore  T.  Munger.1 


The  names  of  Bushnell  and  Munger  are 
closely  linked  in  their  service  to  religious  life 
and  thought.  It  was  Bushnell  who  prepared 
the  way  for  Munger  and  who  gave  him  his  chief 
inspiration  and  guidance;  and  he  in  turn  repaid 

1  For  a  full  and  sympathetic  account  of  Dr.  Munger's  life 
and  work  see  Theodore  Thornton  Munger:  New  England  Minister, 
by  Professor  Benjamin  W.  Bacon.  Yale  Press,  1903.  The  title 
"seer"  was  given  him  by  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon  in  a  memorial 
sermon  at  the  unveiling  of  the  tablet  in  his  memory  in  the  United 
Church,  New  Haven,  January  15,  1911.  The  sermon  is  printed  in 
full  in  the  above  biography  (pp.  377-398). 


56  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

the  debt  by  becoming  the  sympathetic  and 
illuminating  biographer  and  interpreter  of 
Bushnell. 

The  two  thinkers,  bound  together  by  a  deep 
and  vital  intellectual  and  spiritual  consanguin- 
ity, were  yet  in  many  respects  in  marked  though 
supplemental  contrast.  Bushnell  was  original, 
rugged,  creative;  Munger  discerning,  judicious, 
interpretative.  Bushnell  lacked  carefulness  and 
discrimination  in  his  thinking,  Munger  was  a 
master  of  reflection  and  discrimination.  Bush- 
nell's  thought  plunged  on  like  a  cataract,  swift, 
forceful,  eloquent;  Hunger's  flowed  like  a 
stately  river  through  cultivated  meadows, 
ordered,  beautiful,  satisfying.  Bushnell  carried 
his  point  by  being  carried  away  with  it;  Munger 
by  means  of  a  clarifying  and  convincing  modera- 
tion. Bushnell  left  his  work  in  rough,  half-hewn 
blocks  whose  design,  though  unfinished,  bears 
the  marks  of  being  struck  out  by  genius; 
Munger  chiseled  these  into  perfect  symmetry 
and  set  them  in  due  and  beautiful  order. 

The  disciple's  biography  of  his  master  is  a 
rare  piece  of  literary  portrait  painting,  but  it 
is  more  than  that.  It  is  an  explication  of  the 
fundamental  meaning  and  import  of  Bushnell's 
thought  in  a  proportion  and  a  sequence  such  as 


THEODORE  T.  MUNGER  57 

its  originator  could  hardly  himself  have  shaped.1 
Thus  the  later  thinker  continued  and  supple- 
mented the  work  of  the  earlier  in  a  true  apostolic 
succession. . 

There  was  much  not  only  in  Bushnell's 
thought  but  in  the  whole  theological  movement 
of  the  later  nineteenth  century  that  was 
implicit,  undeveloped,  unrelated.  Dr.  Munger, 
more  quickly  and  sympathetically  than  any 
other  of  its  exponents,  understood  and  defined 
it.  If  the  assertion  did  not  savor  too  much  of 
the  outworn  theology  which  it  was  his  mission 
to  help  supplant,  it  might  be  said  that  he  was 
"foreordained"  to  further  the  newer  religious 
thought.  Birth,  training,  disposition,  all  con- 
spired to  make  him  both  a  natural  and  a 
progressive  Christian.  He  was  a  typical  in- 
stance, a  living  demonstration,  of  BushnelPs 
"Christian  Nurture."  On  his  father's  side  a 
descendant  of  John  Eliot,  saintliest  of  the 
early  apostles  of  Massachusetts,  and  on  his 
mother's,  offspring  of  a  long  line  of  Connecticut 
ministers,  he  was  begotten  and  cradled  in  New 
England  piety.  / 

The  home  into  which  he  was  born,  March  5, 
1830,  was  one  of  genuine  and  unpretentious 

1  Horace  Bushnell:  Preacher  and  Theologian  (1899). 


58  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

faith,  untroubled  by  overmuch  conventional 
theology.  "As  for  Eve  and  wicked  children 
and  sin  as  a  crime  of  nature,"  he  wrote,  "I 
was  brought  up  in  the  midst  of  it,  but  never 
did  I  hear  or  imbibe  from  my  parents  a  teach- 
ing nor  a  suggestion  on  the  subject."  x  As  a  boy 
he  loved  to  be  alone  on  the  hills  and  "lose  him- 
self in  the  thought  of  God." 2  Yet,  bathed  as 
were  the  hills  for  him  at  times  in  the  tender 
light  of  mysticism  they  were  as  often  swept  by 
the  clarifying  winds  of  intellectualism. 
!  At  Yale  College,  which  he  entered  in  1847, 
he  was  a  reader  rather  than  a  close  student,  — 
upright,  thoughtful,  reverent,  but  not  closely 
in  touch  with  the  conventional  religious  ac- 
tivities of  the  students.  As  a  theological  student 
at  Yale  Divinity  School,  and  afterward  for  a 
brief  time  at  Andover,  he  was  observant  and 
well-poised.  While  he  had  great  admiration  for 
the  peerless  N.  W.  Taylor  as  a  logician  and 
teacher,  he  could  not,  as  Bushnell  before  him 
could  not,  accept  his  ironclad  system.  During 
his  theological  course  he  was  quietly  doing  his 
own  thinking  and  it  carried  him  farther  and 
farther  from  his  doctrinal  heritage  into  a 

1  Bacon:  Theodore  Thornton  Munger,  p.  12. 
a  Ibid.,  p.  15. 


THEODORE  T.  HUNGER  59 

broader  and  sunnier  faith.  In  short,  here  was  a 
high-minded,  free,  unfettered  son  of  the  church, 
of  the  moral-intellectual  type  —  if  one  insists 
upon  classifying  men  by  types  —  who  grew  up 
into  the  religious  life  as  naturally  as  a  tree 
planted  in  the  courts  of  the  Lord.  Repelled  by 
the  commonplace  and  conventional  religion 
about  him,  he  went  deeper  and  learned  in 
clear  self-reliance  "to  approve  the  things  that 
are  excellent"  —  and  those  only.  The  ministry 
attracted  him  because  of  its  double  opportunity 
of  service  and  self-development.  He  was  not 
ambitious.  "All  I  hope,"  he  wrote  to  his 
mother  on  the  threshold  of  his  ministry,  "is  to 
find  some  small  country  congregation  whose 
wants  I  can  supply  as  a  teacher  of  God's 
word"1  —  yet  he  was  resolved  to  make  the 
most  of  his  high  calling.  The  authors  to  whom, 
as  his  thinking  developed,  he  owed  most  were 
beside  Bushnell,  Maurice  and  Frederick  Robert- 
son, to  whom  he  was  drawn  by  an  unerring 
spiritual  instinct.  There  was  nothing  con- 
spicuous in  the  opening  of  his  ministry.  It  was 
only  slowly  and  by  degrees  that  he  came  for- 
ward as  one  of  the  clearest  and  most  convincing 
representatives  of  the  newer  theological  think- 

• 

m8'          « Bacon:  Theodore  Thornton  Munger,  p.  79. 


60  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

ii 

When  we  ask  what  it  was  in  this  quiet  un- 
pretentious minister  that  gave  him  his  unique 
influence  as  an  exponent  of  the  New  Theology, 
we  find  that  it  was  due  mainly  to  two  causes. 
The  first  was  his  determination  to  break  through 
the  chains  of  theological  conservatism  with 
which  the  champions  of  orthodoxy  were  trying 
to  bind  the  pulpit  of  his  denomination  in  his 
day,  and  the  second  was  the  efficacy  of  the 
means  which  he  used  for  the  purpose.  In  the 
crusade  in  behalf  of  freer  and  broader  religious 
thought  he  formed  one  of  a  group  of  un- 
usually able  men,  among  whom  were  Egbert  C. 
Smyth,  Newman  Smyth,  Washington  Gladden, 
William  J.  Tucker,  George  A.  Gordon,  George 
Harris,  Lyman  Abbott,  William  Hayes  Ward, 
Alexander  McKenzie,  James  G.  Vose,  Daniel 
Merriman  and  others,  —  all  of  them  taking 
part  in  the  American  Board  and  Andover  con- 
troversies later  to  be  described.  The  principle 
which  Dr.  Munger  —  and  all  of  this  group  of 
men  —  was  most  concerned  to  secure  was  that 
so  well  expressed  in  the  title  of  his  well-known 
volume  "The  Freedom  of  Faith"  (1883).  F°r 
this  freedom  of  thought  and  utterance  he 


THEODORE  T.  HUNGER  61 

contended  vigorously  before  church  councils, 
in  the  pulpits  of  the  churches  which  he  served, 
and  through  the  press.  It  cost  him  dark  days 
and  painful  experiences,  but  he  never  wavered 
in  purpose  or  conviction. 

In  this  battle  for  doctrinal  freedom  he  was 
as  outspoken,  courageous  and  aggressive  as 
he  was  considerate  and  magnanimous.  In  all  of 
his  conduct  toward  his  opponents  he  was 
governed  by  the  first  of  the  "Six  Principles" 
of  Frederick  Robertson,  which  he  adopted 
early  in  his  ministerial  life,  i.e.,  "the  establish- 
ment of  positive  truth  instead  of  the  negative 
destruction  of  error."  In  conformity  to  this 
principle  he  made  it  a  rule  not  to  answer  attack. 
These  tactics  of  construction  instead  of  destruc- 
tion, of  persuasiveness  instead  of  pugnacity,  of 
patience  instead  of  retaliation,  won  him  con- 
stantly increasing  regard  and  influence,  and 
everywhere  opposition  melted  away  before 
friendliness  and  suspicion  gave  place  to  con- 
fidence. It  was  to  his  own  honor  and  that  of 
his  cause  that  he  won  the  battle,  not  only  for 
himself  but  for  the  New  Theology,  by  a  spirit 
and  a  method  in  harmony  with  the  doctrines 
which  he  advocated  and  the  religion  which  he 
confessed. 


62  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

in 

The  chief  means  by  which  Dr.  Munger  won 
his  end  and  accomplished  so  large  service  for 
the  New  Theology  was  his  literary  art,  an  art 
which  he  made  a  sacred  instrument  of  truth. 
The  separation  between  literature  and  theology 
had  been  as  wide  and  painful  as  the  traditional 
one  between  text  and  sermon.  Much  worthy 
theology  had  gone  a-begging  because  clothed  in 
the  garments  of  heaviness  instead  of  the  robes 
of  praise.  In  him  appeared  one  of  the  few 
theologians  who  have  mastered  the  art  of  using 
pure,  finished,  attractive,  persuasive  prose. 
Because  of  this  finely  wrought  literary  vesture, 
clothing  his  free  thought,  his  deep  insight,  and 
his  tender  human  sympathy  in  the  light  and 
color  with  which  nature  has  taught  the  Chris- 
tian to  adorn  his  doctrines  in  all  things,  his 
volumes  of  sermons  early  took  their  place 
among  the  best  productions  of  American 
literature.  By  virtue  of  this  grace  they  found 
their  way  into  the  palace  of  the  Queen  of 
England,1  the  libraries  of  scholars  and  the 
sanctums  of  editors  as  well  as  into  humble 

1  Queen  Victoria  wrote  of  the  "encouragement"  and 
"strength"  she  had  received  from  The  Freedom  of  Faith.  See 
Bacon,  op.  cit.,  p.  258. 


THEODORE  T.  MUNGER  63 

homes  where  the  love  of  beauty  is  wedded  to 
the  love  of  truth.  Thus  truth  entered  in  at 
lofty  as  well  as  lowly  doors,  even  though 
clothed  in  the  suspected  garb  of  the  "New 
Theology." 

Of  "The  Freedom  of  Faith"  the  British 
"Quarterly  Review"  said:  "The  sermons  de- 
serve to  rank  with  the  noblest  productions  of 
modern  times;  they  have  the  large  sympathies 
of  Beecher,  the  exegetical  tact  of  Robertson, 
the  literary  finish  of  Vaughan,  and  the  daring 
of  Maurice."  Of  "The  Appeal  to  Life"  "The 
Literary  World,"  of  London,  said,  "For  pur- 
poses of  inspiration  and  of  furnishing  very 
high  models  of  a  Divine  art,  we  know  of  but 
few  which  attain  to  their  lofty  pitch  of  ex- 
cellence." The  literary  style  of  this  unassum- 
ing, unadvertised  preacher,  who  never  attracted 
crowds  yet  who  through  his  publications 
reached  thousands  where  the  popular  preacher 
reaches  hundreds,  was  in  no  wise  arresting  nor 
conspicuous.  It  was  neither  florid  nor  sonorous 
nor  scintillating.  It  was  simply  lucid,  sober, 
well-ordered,  expressive  English  —  lit  fre- 
quently by  a  flash  of  captivating  insight  and 
beauty  —  free  from  extravagance  but  never 
lapsing  into  commonplace,  "fit  and  fair  and 


64  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

simple  and  sufficient."  Perhaps  its  rarest 
merit  —  sorrowfully  rare  in  sermonic  literature 
—  is  its  resolute  sincerity.  It  possesses  that  fine 
distinction,  moral  as  well  as  artistic,  that 
belongs  only  to  the  very  best  literature,  of  ex- 
pressing the  true  intention  of  the  author  both 
accurately  and  amply. 

One  of  the  best  evidences  of  Dr.  Munger's 
thorough  mastery  of  literary  art  is  the  fact 
that  his  sermonic  style  is  sermonic,  cast  in  the 
form  —  not  of  the  sermon  as  it  is  usually 
heard,  careless,  inchoate,  without  form  and 
void  (perhaps  because  the  Spirit  has  not 
brooded  over  it)  —  but  of  the  true  sermon, 
possessing  these  peculiar  notes  of  elevation  and 
intimacy,  of  strength  and  tenderness  which 
give  to  the  sermon  its  own  unique  place  and 
possibilities  as  a  form  of  literature.  Dr.  Munger 
knew  well  how  to  use  other  literary  forms, 
especially  the  essay  —  and  it  is  instructive  to 
note  how  his  style  varies  when  he  adapts  it  to 
the  essay  —  but  it  was  the  sermon  which 
provided  him  his  chosen  and  perfected  literary 
form. 

One  of  the  minor  but  marked  excellences  of 
Dr.  Munger  as  a  sermonizer  is  his  use  of  apt, 
vivid  and  luminous  imagery.  Analogy,  illustra- 


.  THEODORE  T.  MUNGER  65 

tion,  description,  leap  to  his  aid.  Take,  for 
example,  the  following  characterization  of  the 
book  of  the  Acts,  in  the  introduction  of  the 
sermon  on  "The  Reception  of  New  Truth": 
"There  is  in  this  book  of  the  Acts,  as  in  Homer 
and  in  all  great  histories,  a  wonderful  sense  of 
motion.  One  feels  as  if  sailing  in  a  great  ship, 
under  a  bounding  breeze,  out  of  a  narrow 
harbor,  into  the  wide  sea.  ...  So  in  reading 
this  history  it  is  no  longer  Judea  but  the  world, 
no  longer  Jerusalem  but  Rome  and  Spain 
also;  no  more  one  chosen  people  but  all  nations." 
Or  turn  to  the  striking  picture  of  the  merely 
aesthetic  life,  in  the  sermon  on  "God  our  Shield" 
in  which  he  describes  the  irresponsible  type  of 
living  as  "reminding  one  of  the  curtain  of  a 
theatre  whereon  is  painted  a  careless  youth 
touching  the  strings  of  a  lute  for  listless  girls 
amongst  flowers  and  fountains,  while  behind  it 
is  Hamlet  rehearsing  his  great  question,  'To  be 
or  not  to  be,'  or  Lear  struggling  with  the 
tempest  and  his  own  heart."  That  is  not 
theatrical,  but  dramatic,  as  well  as  sermonic. 
Not  often  does  one  meet  such  a  description  of 
the  poise  of  Christ  as  this  in  the  noble  sermon 
"The  Witness  of  Experience":  "His  words 
flame  with  divine  indignation,  but  it  is  the  still 


66  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

heat  of  a  sun;  his  emotions  are  deep,  but  their 
expression  is  like  the  wheels  in  Dante's  vision 
that  seem  to  sleep  on  their  axles  from  the  very 
swiftness  of  their  turning." 

Such  comparisons  and  metaphors  light  up  a 
sermon  with  singular  charm;  yet  they  are  only 
the  lamps  that  serve  to  illuminate  wide  vistas 
of  uplifting  thought  and  deep  mines  of  wisdom 
and_truth  and  timely  counsels  of  perfection. 
No  one  can  read  such  sermons  without  being 
conscious  that  they  must  have  cost  their  author 
long  and  patient  work  —  as  his  biographer 
assures  us  they  did.  It  is  easy  to  believe  that 
before  beginning  them  the  writer  was  wont  to 
put  himself  in  touch  with  the  "Christ-con- 
sciousness" that  he  might  meet  his  task  aright.1 


IV 

Turning  now,  after  too  long  delay,  to  Dr. 
Munger's  interpretation  of  the  New  Theology, 
we  find  ourselves  in  possession  not  only  of  his 
sermons  as  its  vehicle  but  of  a  carefully  framed 
and  mature  statement  of  the  substance  of  it  as 

1  Mention  should  also  be  made  of  that  sane,  high-minded, 
and  helpful  book  of  counsel  to  youth  which  has  given  guidance 
to  so  many  young  lives,  On  the  Threshold,  and  of  its  companion 
volume,  Lamps  and  Paths. 


THEODORE  T.  MUNGER  67 

he  conceived  it,  in  the  extended  introduction 
to  "The  Freedom  of  Faith."  This  introduc- 
tion, written  so  early  as  1883,  stands  in  some 
respects  unparalleled  as  a  summary  of  the 
"New  Theology"  in  America.  The  first  char- 
acteristic which  strikes  one  in  reading  it  is  its 
restrained  and  irenic  tone.  It  is  no  offhand 
polemic  nor  hectic  pronunciamento  but  an  un- 
biased and  sincere  endeavor  to  bring  out  the 
real  motive  and  meaning  of  the  movement.  He 
refuses  to  admit  that  the  New  Theology  is 
really  new,  declaring  that  "it  allies  itself  even 
with  the  older  rather  than  the  later  theologies 
and  finds  in  the  early  Greek  theology/concep- 
tions  more  harmonious  with  itself  than  those 
in  the  theology  shaped  by  Augustine."  I  He 
discerns  that  the  New  Theology  consists  not 
so  much  in  a  new  set  of  doctrines  as  in  a  new 
attitude  and  spirit.  It  renounces  the  systemism 
of  the  Old  Theology  with  all  its  works,  espe- 
cially its  over-reliance  upon  logic.  Not  that  it 
"abjures  logic"  in  the  sense  of  a  "harmony  of 
doctrines"  but  that  it  recognizes  also" mystery" 
and  "sentiment"  and  "hope"  as  all  belonging 

'In  this  contention  he  is  clearly  indebted  to  Professor 
A.  V.  G.  Allen  to  whom  he  refers  in  a  footnote  and  whose  volume, 
The  Continuity  of  Christian  Thoughtt  was  one  of  the  chief  con- 
tributions to  the  New  Theology.  _, 


68  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

within  the  sphere  of  truth.  The  New  Theology 
claims  also  "a  broader  use  of  the  reason"  than 
the  Old  Theology,  meaning  by  reason  "  man's 
whole  inner  being,"  a  larger  view  of  revelation, 
and  a  freer  "more  natural"  use  of  Scripture. 
It  "seeks  to  replace  an  excessive  individuality 
by  a'true  view^of  the  solidarity  of  the  race."  It 
"recognizes  a  new  relation  to  natural  science'^  * 
and  claims  for  itself  "a  wider  study  of  man." 

In  nothing  does  the  penetration  and  wisdom 
of  Dr.  Munger's  mind  show  itself  more  clearly 
than  in  his  attitude  toward  evolution,  by  whose 
almost  dramatic  emergence  many  in  his  day 
were  being  swept  away  into  an  exuberance  of 
acclamation  and  others  into  a  paralysis  of 
doubt.  In  contrast  to  both  of  these  attitudes 
he  recognizes  the  aid  which  evolution  offers  to 
theology  in  helping  it  "to  regain  its  forgotten 
theory  of  the  divine  immanence  in  creation," 
and  yet  he  sees  the  danger  of  pan-evolutionism, 
lest  matter  come  to  be  regarded  as  "inclusive 
of  the  spiritual,"  and  the  need  of  asserting 
"the  reality  of  the  spiritual  as  above  the 
material,  of  force  that  is  other  than  that  lodged 


in  matter." 


Of  the   relation  of  the  New  Theology   to 
specific  doctrines,  Dr.  Munger  says  little.  It 


THEODORE  T.  MTJNGER  69 

is  significant  of  the  abnormal  viewpoint  of  his 
day  that  the  only  doctrine  which  he  singles  out 
in  this  statement  for  extended  discussion  is 
eschatology.  In  discussing  it  he  first  places 
emphasis  upon  the  larger  meaning  of  the  word 
"eternal"  and  then  raises  well  sustained  objec- 
tions to  the  whole  conception  of  "probation," 
whether  present  or  future,  placing  the  emphasis 
where  it  belongs,  upon  life  as  education  and 
only  incidentally  probation.  Perhaps  the  strong- 
est and  most  pertinent  criticism  of  the  Old 
Theology  which  he  makes  is  that  of  its  aliena- 
tion from  human  life.  "The  Old  Theology 
stands  on  a  structure  of  logic  outside  of  hu- 
manity. ...  It  lifts  man  out  of  his  manifold 
and  real  relations,  out  of  the  wide  and  rich 
complexity  of  actual  life  and  carries  him  over 
into  a  mechanically  constructed  and  ideal 
world  —  a  world  made  up  of  five  propositions, 
like  Calvinism  or  some  other  such  system  — 
and  views  him  only  in  the  light  of  that  world." 
Here  speaks  the  humanist,  the  lover  of  truth 
and  of  the  life  more  abundant.  The  New 
Theology,  as  he  conceives  it,  means  the  broaden- 
ing and  humanizing  of  theology  so  that  it  may 
become  a  true  science  of  man's  relation  to  God 
and  his  world.  Of  this  freer,  larger  Christianity 


70  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

his  sermons  and  essays  form  an  expansive  and 
worthy  description.  The  very  titles  of  his  lead- 
ing volumes,  "The  Freedom  of  Faith"  and 
"The  Appeal  to  Life,"  are  an  expression  of 
the  large  and  liberating  Christian  living  — 
sane,  serene,  fruitful,  optimistic  —  into  which 
Dr.  Munger  had  entered  through  the  narrow 
gate  that  leads  to  life.  Such  a  life  would  have 
been  impossible  save  as  he  had  reached  it 
through  Him  through  whom  he  went  "in  and 
out";  in  to  the  deeper  soul  of  things  —  and 
found  it  Fatherly  —  and  out  into  the  wide 
fields  of  human  culture  and  fellowship. 


In  his  serene  and  reflective  later  years  Dr. 
Munger  gave  much  thought  to  two  subjects  of 
great  significance  to  theology:  the  relation  of 
theology  to  the  university  and  the  kinship  — 
"interplay"  he  termed  it  —  of  theology  and 
literature.  The  fruit  of  his  insights  and  reflec- 
tions upon  these  and  other  themes  appeared  in 
articles  contributed  to  "The  Atlantic  Monthly," 
"The  Century  Magazine,"  "The  Outlook,"  and 
other  periodicals  and  were  later  embodied  in 
"Essays  for  the  Day"  (1904),  a  book  whose 
colorless  title  fails  to  reflect  the  nature  and 


THEODORE  T.  HUNGER  71 

value  of  its  contents.  The  first  of  these  essays, 
"The  Church:  Some  Immediate  Questions," 
opens  with  a  kindly  yet  critical  explanation  of 
the  existence  of  the  one  hundred  and  forty-seven 
denominations  of  Christians  in  America  —  a 
phenomenon  in  which  he  sees,  with  extraordi- 
nary charity,  not  so  much  an  indication  of  schism 
as  of  religious  freedom  and  fertility.  Various 
phases  of  literature  and  religion  are  discussed  with 
great  pertinence  in  these  chapters,  none  with 
greater  force  and  timeliness  than  the  relation 
of  theological  education  to  the  university.  He  is 
confident  that  theology  cannot  thrive  apart 
from  the  university.  The  Theological  Seminary 
finds  no  data  for  a  scientific,  not  to  say  practical 
theism  —  the  question  of  questions  —  until  it 
searches  it  out  and  teaches  it  from  evolution. 
Thus  it  finds  ground  for  the  truth  that  man  has 
always  sought  for  and  in  higher  moments 
asserted,  the  divine  immanence  in  all  things  and 
the  like  nature  of  God  and  man.  If  there  is  to 
be  a  theology  in  the  future  it  will  be  found  in 
this  region,  in  connection  with  the  university, 
which  is  to  play  a  large  part  in  its  reconstruc- 
tion; that  is,  theology  will  spring  from  the  whole 
circle  of  human  knowledge.1 

1  Essays  for  the  Day,  p.  20. 


72  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

These  are  sagacious  words,  catholic  and  far- 
sighted.  One  feels  their  wisdom,  though,  like 
the  writer,  he  may  dissent  from  the  final  state- 
ment, holding  that  the  theology  of  the  future  as 
of  the  past  will  spring  not  from  "  the  whole  circle 
of  human  knowledge"  but  rather  from  that 
inner  experience  which  we  call  religious, —  an 
experience  in  itself  sui  generis,  but  which  re- 
quires for  its  interpretation  and  application  all 
forms  of  knowledge.  In  other  words,  the  indi- 
vidual experience  of  the  profound  realities  of 
the  spiritual  world,  mediated  by  the  Christian 
community,  is  the  fountainhead  of  theology; 
but  for  its  explication  theology  needs  contact 
with  the  whole  sphere  of  human  knowledge. 
For  this  reason  theology  needs  to  resort  to  the 
university,  else  it  will  stagnate. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  university  itself  was 
the  creation  chiefly  of  the  church.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Paris,  the  mother  of  European  and 
thus  of  American  universities,  began  as  a  school 
of  theology,  and  theology  long  held  the  leading 
place  in  most  of  the  great  universities  of 
Europe.1  Nor  was  it  by  any  means  a  mere 
dry-as-dust  mechanical  discipline  but  "the 

1  See  J.  W.  Buckham:  "The  Study  of  Religion  in  the  Uni- 
versity," Educational  Review  (January,  1913). 


THEODORE  T.  MUNGER  73 

architectonic  science  whose  office  it  was  to 
receive  the  results  of  all  other  sciences  and 
combine  them  into  an  organic  whole  in  so  far 
as  they  had  bearings  on  the  supreme  questions 
of  the  nature  of  God  and  of  the  universe  and 
the  relation  of  man  to  both."  x 

In  our  own  country  the  two  oldest  colleges 
of  New  England,  now  among  our  greatest 
universities,  Harvard  and  Yale,  were  founded 
chiefly  for  the  education  of  the  ministry. 
Theology,  however,  now  holds  but  a  vestige 
of  her  old-time  glory  in  them.  Still,  there  is  a 
surviving  bond  between  church  and  university 
in  America  which  means  much  for  both  and 
which  should  not  be  allowed  to  decay.  For  the 
church  to  lose  touch  with  the  university,  as 
there  is  no  little  danger  of  its  doing  to-day, 
would  be  a  most  serious  disaster,  and  for  theol- 
ogy to  go  her  lonely  way  unfed  and  unstimulated 
and  unsustained  by  the  life  of  the  university 
would  mean  inevitable  deterioration.  The 
university  is  indispensable  to  the  church.  No 
one  saw  this  more  clearly  than  did  Dr.  Munger, 
as  the  following  words  attest: 

It  Is  there  the  church  must  continually  go  to 
correct  ancient  mistakes,  to  measure  the  urgency 

1  Raahdall:  Universities  of  Europe t  vol.  II,  p.  215. 


74  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

of  new  truths,  to  clear  itself  of  entanglements  when 
old  and  new  conflict,  to  shut  out  the  clamor  of 
the  mob  howling  for  a  new  dogma  or  decrying  an 
old  one,  to  keep  eye  and  ear  open  for  fresh  visions 
of  God  and  new  accents  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
above  all  for  seeing  to  it  that  great  matters  are  held 
in  their  due  proportion,  and  that  all  matters  worthy 
of  attention  are  studied  until  they  are  brought  into 
reasonable  harmony  with  one  another  and  so 
conduce  to  the  one  end  of  all  study  —  truth.  The 
university  is  thus  the  refuge  of  the  churches  for  help 
in  all  those  questions  that  perplex  them.  Such  has 
been  its  function  in  all  ages,  and  such  it  will  continue 
to  be.  .  .  .  The  increasing  necessity  of  the  church  is 
enlightenment,  and  for  this  we  must  look  to  the 
university.  Nothing  of  value  is  being  said  to-day  on 
theology  or  ecclesiastical  usage  that  does  not  pro- 
ceed from  it  or  bear  its  stamp.  But  the  university 
must  be  of  the  true  Comenius  type  —  based  on 
nature  and  crowned  with  faith  in  God,  balancing 
all  attainable  truth,  and  thus  able  to  teach  har- 
monious truths  and  true  living. x 

In  harmony  with  this  conviction  of  the  need 
of  a  closer  affiliation  of  church  and  university, 
Dr.  Munger  maintained  that  theological  in- 
struction should  be  carried  on,  not  at  isolated 
points,  but  only  at  university  centers.  In  an 
address  given  at  Yale  Divinity  School  in  1902 
and  published  in  "The  Outlook"  he  urged 
with  great  force  that  all  theological  education 
1  Op.  cit.,  pp.  45-47. 


THEODORE  T.  MUNGER  75 

should  be  brought  within  the  sphere  of  the 
university,  "  that  its  relations  should  be  so  close 
and  vital  as  to  fill  its  spirit,  and  that  it  might 
learn  and  adopt  those  careful  and  comprehen- 
sive habits  of  thought  which  are  fostered  by 
university  life."  He  recognized  the  danger  of 
the  loss  of  moral  enthusiasm  in  such  a  relation, 
but  he  held  that  this  could  be  avoided  and  that 
the  inner  springs  of  the  spiritual  life  could  be 
kept  filled  at  the  university  centers  as  well  as 
elsewhere. 

Those  of  us  who  were  trained  on  old  Andover 
Hill,  or  at  Auburn,  or  Bangor,  or  at  other  sem- 
inaries similarly  situated,  will  not  readily  relin- 
quish the  peculiar  advantages  in  the  compara- 
tive quiet  and  seclusion,  the  opportunity  of 
concentration  and  reflection,  afforded  by  the 
rural  type  of  institution.  The  atmosphere  of 
the  university  does  not  in  all  respects  stimulate 
theological  studies,  as  the  theological  professor 
who  must  hold  his  students  to  their  especial 
subjects  in  competition  with  the  crowded 
lectures  of  a  great  university  very  well  knows. 
And  yet,  on  the  whole,  university  environment 
is  proving  the  best  for  the  study  of  theology.  It 
contributes  far  more  than  it  detracts.  The 
scientific  spirit  and  the  philosophic  outlook 


76  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

may  prove  too  expansive  for  the  faith  of  some 
students,  but  they  certainly  dispel  the  odium 
iheologicum  and  on  the  whole,  and  in  the  end, 
leave  the  student  a  better  fitted  as  well  as  a 
broader  man. 

"Woe  be  to  theology  in  the  future  if  it  holds 
back  from  the  scientific  method;  and  a  heavier 
woe  will  fall  upon  the  university  if  it  is  in- 
different to  that  department  of  truth  which  is 
necessary  to  complete  its  circle."  x  The  warning 
of  this  emphatic  word  of  Dr.  Munger  is  not  to 
be  overlooked.  Indifference  to  the  sphere  of 
truth  which  theology  represents  creates  a 
conspicuous  vacuum  in  the  life  of  many  of  our 
universities  which  science  and  philosophy  and 
the  humanities  fail  to  fill,  liberalizing  as  they 
are.  The  university  needs  the  theological 
school  to  complete  the  circle  of  the  higher 
studies  by  supplying  those  which  have  to  do 
most  directly  with  the  ultimates  of  human 
life  and  destiny.  Dr.  Munger's  plea  that  the 
two  be  kept  in  close  touch  needs  strong  and 
constant  reiteration. 

*Thc  Outlook,  vol.  70,  p.  730. 


THEODORE  T.  MUNGER  77 

VI 

One  of  the  most  auspicious  and  progressive 
tendencies  of  modern  theology  is  its  increasing 
affiliation  with  literature.  Under  the  influence  of 
Protestant  scholasticism,  Puritan  impoverish- 
ment, and  its  own  pride  of  dominion,  theology 
became  isolated  from  the  genial  and  life-giving 
influences  of  literature  and  had  grown  harsh 
and  barren  and  repellent.  To  its  own  serious 
detriment  it  had  become  blind  to  the  presence 
of  genuine  theological  thought  in  the  literature 
which  the  people  read  and  love.  In  the  latter 
nineteenth  century  —  that  period  of  spiritual 
renascence  in  English  literature  —  Protestant 
theology  began  to  awaken  to  the  folly  of  its 
estrangement  from  belles-lettres.  Such  theolo- 
gians as  Samuel  Harris,  versed  in  literature  as 
well  as  philosophy,  and  Augustus  Strong  began 
to  surmise  that  literature  has  stores  of  wealth 
for  theology  which  she  was  failing  to  realize, 
and  the  return  to  literature  which  they  fostered 
has  brought  large  gains  to  theology.  It  is  true 
that  in  some  cases  the  resort  to  literature  has 
been  too  much  of  the  nature  of  a  mere  maraud- 
ing expedition  into  its  rich  fields  to  see  what 
spoils  could  be  captured  to  adorn  the  halls  of 


78  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

theology.  Some  theologians  have  been  little 
more  than  spoilsmen.  Others,  however,  have 
gone  to  literature  out  of  pure  and  unfeigned 
love  of  it,  and  returned,  not  so  much  laden 
with  spoils  as  having  their  own  thought  bathed 
in  its  dews,  made  redolent  with  its  fragrance 
and  winged  with  its  persuasive  accents.  Thus 
the  ancient  kinship  of  theology  and  literature 
found  in  Origen  and  Augustine,  Bonaventura 
and  Dante  has  been,  in  part  at  least,  reestab- 
lished. 

1  Few  have  done  as  much  to  restore  to  theology 
the  aids  and  amenities  of  literature  as  Theo- 
dore T.  Munger.  He  was  himself,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  possessor  of  genuine  literary  talent 
and  patiently  and  sincerely  cultivated  it.  He 
was  from  boyhood  a  lover  of  the  best  literature 
and  came  to  see  with  increasing  clearness  the 
theological  implications  and  values  of  the 
great  masterpieces  of  literature.  In  a  notable 
article  in  "The  Atlantic  Monthly,"  entitled 
"The  Interplay  of  Christianity  and  Literature," 
he  showed  how  rich  and  ennobling  are  the 
holdings  of  Christianity  in  this  incomparable 
realm  of  life  and  expression.1  If  it  were  not  so, 

1  See  also  M.  H.  Buckham:  The  Very  Elect;  "  The  Religious 
Influence  of  Literary  Studies." 


THEODORE  T.  HUNGER  79 

if  the  great  creations  of  the  spirit  of  literature 
were  without  theological  character  and  impli- 
cations, it  would  argue  ill  for  the  reality  and 
worth  of  religion  as  well  as  of  theology.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  many  of  the  noblest  and  most 
vital  interpretations  of  Christianity  —  and 
what  are  these  but  theology?  —  lie  embedded  in 
the  world's  great  poems  and  essays  and  works 
of  fiction.  That  fact  Dr.  Munger  knew  right  well 
and  helped  others  to  discover.  "The  value  of 
these  restatements  of  Christianity,"  he  wrote, 
"especially  by  the  poets,  is  beyond  estimate. 
They  are  the  real  defenders  of  the  Faith,  the 
prophets  and  priests  whose  succession  never 
fails."  ^ 

The  unrecognized  theological  implications 
resident  in  a  work  of  fiction  are  strikingly 
brought  out  in  "Notes  on  the  Scarlet  Letter."1 
In  Hawthorne's  striking  story,  as  he  so  clearly 
shows,  there  is  a  sensing  of  the  true  nature  and 
effects  of  sin  such  as  the  customary  theological 
treatise  fails  to  touch. 

Even  if  such  treasures  are  in  vessels,  the  grace 

of  whose  fashion  exhibits  no  Christian  legend  or 

symbolism,  they  may  be  as  truly  Christian  in 

character  as  if  they  were  inscribed  within  and 

1  Essays  for  the  Day. 


8o  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

without  with  the  name  of  Christ.  Such  is  Dr. 
Munger's  reminder.  For  it  is,  as  he  points  out, 
by  no  means  merely  in  the  openly  and  un- 
qualifiedly Christian  authors,  like  Milton  and 
Tennyson  and  Browning,  that  the  realities  of 
Christian  truth  are  to  be  found,  but  in  many  a 
writer  not  folded  with  the  faithful.  "The  Chris- 
tian value  of  an  author  is  not  to  be  determined 
by  the  fulness  of  his  Christian  assertion.  There 
is,  of  course,  immense  value  in  the  positive,  full- 
statured  believers  like  Dante  and  Bacon  and 
Milton  and  Browning.  Such  men  form  the  court 
from  which  there  is  no  appeal.  But  Christianity 
is  all  the  while  in  need  of  two  things :  correction 
of  its  mistakes  and  perversions  and  develop- 
ments in  the  direction  of  its  universality.  None 
can  do  these  two  things  so  well  as  those  who 
are  partially  outsiders.  ...  In  order  to  translate 
the  natural  into  the  divine,  and  to  find  a  place 
for  the  divine  in  the  natural,  they  who  know 
the  natural,  and  hold  it  even  at  some  cost  to 
the  divine,  must  be  employed." x 

Such  words  as  these  fall  like  music  upon 
ears  that  have  long  been  closed,  by  reason  of 
the  din  of  theological  polemic,  to  the  voice  of 
the  spirit  of  Christianity  as  it  speaks  from  the 

1  Essays  for  the  Day,  pp.  82,  83. 


THEODORE  T.  HUNGER  8l 

unordained  lips  of  "secular"  authors.  They 
reveal  something  of  the  length  and  breadth 
and  depth  and  height  of  Christian  faith  and 
reflect  that  liberating,  expansive  interpreta- 
tion of  religion  which  under  the  name  of  the 
"New  Theology"  Theodore  Munger  did  so 
much  to  interpret  and  further, —  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  all  who  love  the  freedom  of  faith 
and  the  abundance  of  life. 

VII 

When  a  just  conception  of  the  pervasive 
universality  of  Christian  faith  gets  full  recogni- 
tion, the  Greeks  of  to-day  who  are  saying 
"we  would  see  Jesus"  —  men  and  women  from 
our  universities  and  colleges  who  cannot  be 
content  with  the  platitudes  and  dogmatisms  of 
a  barren  form  of  orthodoxy  —  will  regain  their 
confidence  in  Christianity.  When  they  discover 
that  the  literature  they  have  learned  to  love, 
which  they  had  thought  alien  from  Christ,  is 
often  redolent  with  His  spirit,  though  not 
burdened  with  His  name;  when  they  learn  that, 
as  Dr.  Munger  has  said,  "for  the  most  part 
the  greater  names  in  literature  have  been  true 
to  Christ,  and  it  is  the  Christ  in  them  that  has 
corrected  theology,  redeeming  it  from  dogma- 


82  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

tism  and  making  it  capable  of  belief  —  not 
clear,  perhaps,  but  profound,"  x  they  will  see 
Him  where  He  was  before  undiscerned.  It  was 
the  office  of  this  large-minded  thinker,  and  those 
who  shared  his  outlook,  to  link  Christianity 
afresh  with  both  the  permanent  and  current 
interests  of  the  human  mind,  thus  regaining  to 
a  large  extent  the  sympathies  of  young  men  and 
women  whom  a  restricted  view  of  life  and  reli- 
gion, out  of  touch  with  modern  education,  had 
alienated  from  Christianity. 

To  portray  and  interpret  America's  greatest 
modern  theologian;  to  aid  potently  in  securing 
"the  freedom  of  faith";  to  discern  the  spirit 
of  the  "New  Theology"  and  reveal  it  to  itself; 
to  help  to  recover  to  theology  contact  with  the 
kindred  domains  of  education  and  literature; 
—  this  was  no  common  task.  It  was  the  high 
and  rare  service  that  Theodore  T.  Munger 
rendered  to  the  religious  life  of  America. 

1  Essays  for  the  Day,  p.  100. 


CHAPTER  III 
GEORGE  A.  GORDON 


GEORGE  ANGIER  GORDON 

1853.    January  2.     Birth  at  Insch,  Scotland. 

1871.    June  22.     Sailed  for  United  States. 

1874.    Entered  Bangor  Theological  Seminary,  graduating  in 

1887. 
1877.    June  20.  Ordained  pastor  of  Congregational  Church, 

Temple,  Me. 

1877.  Revisited  Scotland. 

1878.  Entered     Harvard    University,    graduating    with 

honors  in  Philosophy,  1881. 

1 88 1.    August   i.    Installed    pastor  of    Second  Congre- 
gational Church,  Greenwich,  Conn. 
1884.    April  2.     Installed    pastor  of  Old   South  Church, 

Boston,  Mass. 

1886-90.     Preacher  to  Harvard  University;  also  1906-09. 
1888-1916.     Preacher  to  Yale  University. 

1890.    June   3.    Married  Susan  Huntington  Manning  of 

Boston. 

1893.  Received  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Bowdoin 
College  and  from  Yale  University;  also  from 
Harvard  University  in  1895. 

1896.    First  Ingersoll  lecturer,  Harvard  University. 
1897-1909.    Overseer  of  Harvard  University;  also  1910-17. 

1900.  Lowell  Institute  lecturer,  Boston. 

1901.  Lyman  Beecher  lecturer,  Yale  University. 

1903 .    Received  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  f romColumbia 

University. 
1908-17.    Trustee  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary. 

1908.  Preacher   at  the    Edinburgh  Conference,  Interna- 

tional Congregational  Council. 

1909.  Observance  of  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  his 

pastorate  of  Old  South  Church. 

1909.    Nathanael  W.  Taylor  lecturer,  Yale  Unrversity. 
1915.     Addressed    National    Council    of     Congregational 

Churches,  New  Haven,  Conn.,  on  "Our  Conflict 

and  Our  Resources." 
1918.    President  of  Harvard  Alumni  Association. 


CHAPTER  III 
GEORGE  A.  GORDON 

THE  NEW  THEOLOGY   UNIVERSALIZED 

IT  is  not  customary  to  associate  romance  with 
the  calling  and  election  of  a  theologian;  but  if 
entrance,  through  strange  and  humble  ways 
into  a  large  place  and  a  wide  and  beneficent 
service  is  not  romance,  it  is  something  very 
like  it.  A  poor  lad,  leaving  his  father's  croft  in 
Scotland  for  the  beckoning  opportunities  of 
America,  engaging  at  first  in  manual  toil,  then 
drawn  by  the  summons  of  an  imperative  call  to 
seek  a  training  for  the  ministry,  led  by  the 
consuming  thirst  for  an  ampler  acquaintance 
with  the  master  minds  of  the  ages  to  Harvard 
University,  thence,  after  long  hesitation,  to 
one  of  the  leading  pulpits  of  the  land,  where 
opportunity,  responsibility,  influence  thrust 
themselves  upon  him;  all  this  is  romance  — 
and  more.  It  is  the  leading  of  the  Divine  Spirit. 
Hints  of  the  tale,  veiled  in  words  of  finest  garb 
of  modesty,  appear  here  and  there  throughout 


86  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

the  self-revelation  which  escapes,  almost  un- 
awares, from  his  overflowing  cup.  The  full  story 
awaits  —  let  us  hope  —  adequate  recounting. 


A  significant  fact  of  this  life  experience,  for 
our  purpose  is  that  it  made  of  this  rarely  en- 
dowed and  richly  trained  mind  an  American 
theologian.  George  Angler  Gordon  was,  to  be 
sure,  the  gift  to  America  primus  inter  pares  of 
that  fruitful  mother  of  theologians,  Scotland, 
but  he  soon  became  as  wholly  and  whole- 
heartedly American  as  if  born  in  the  venerated 
city  of  which  he  has  become  almost  as  much  a 
part  as  any  one  of  the  great  succession  of  its 
ministry  from  John  Cotton  to  Phillips  Brooks. 

The  consciousness  of  this  closeness  of  at- 
tachment to  his  adopted  country,  this  grafting 
into  the  stock  of  her  native  thought,  appears 
very  clearly  in  the  preface  to  the  most  im- 
portant of  his  earlier  volumes.1  Consciously 
and  conscientiously,  as  he  there  makes  clear, 
he  began  his  career  as  a  theologian  by  con- 
fronting "questions  perplexing  the  faith  of  our 
churches,  —  of  which  only  one  living  in  open 
communion  in  the  heart  of  our  American 

1  The  Christ  of  To-day,  p.  vi. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  87 

Christianity  can  fully  know."  For  the  resolving 
of  these  questions,  as  well  as  the  clue  to  their 
emergence,  he  went  back,  as  he  there  states,  to 
Jonathan  Edwards  and  the  great  heritage  of 
the  New  England  theology  into  which  he  had 
come. 

This  identification  with  our  Pilgrim  faith 
and  the  quality  and  scope  of  his  service  as  an 
interpreter  and  molder  of  the  religious  thought 
of  the  New  World  have  made  of  George  A. 
Gordon  our  third  great  American  theologian. 
Jonathan  Edwards,  Horace  Bushnell,  George 
A.  Gordon  —  this  is  the  true  American  theolog- 
ical apostolic  succession.  This  estimate  may 
seem  at  present  extravagant,  but  I  am  con- 
vinced the  future  will  confirm  it.  N.  W.  Taylor 
and  Edwards  A.  Park  were  greater  as  logicians 
and  teachers,  W.  E.  Channing  was  greater  as 
an  ethical  reformer  and  prophet,  Charles 
Hodge  and  W.  G.  T.  Shedd  were  more  learned, 
William  N.  Clarke  has  had  wider  influence  in 
the  field  of  irenics,  Borden  P.  Bowne  in  that 
of  philosophy,  but  in  insight  and  breadth  and 
total  accomplishment  none  has  equaled  Dr. 
Gordon. 

His  attitude  toward  the  New  England  theol- 
ogy began  in  mingled  reverence  and  revolt; 


88  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

reverence  for  the  sinewy  seriousness  of  its 
thought  and  the  intensity  of  its  realization  of 
God,  revolt  —  open,  indignant,  sustained  — 
against  the  inhumanity  and  barrenness  of  its 
doctrines,  a  revolt  which  burned  in  his  soul 
until  it  incited  him  to  construct  a  theology 
upon  which  he  could  preach  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ,  the  eternal  gospel  of  the  Son 
of  God,  to  the  modern  man.  Not,  of  course, 
that  he  was  the  pioneer  in  the  construction  of 
the  newer  and  larger  New  England  theology. 
Bushnell  had  already,  as  we  have  seen,  laid  the 
foundations,  as  a  wise  master-builder,  and 
Gordon  entered  with  full  appreciation  —  though 
not  without  knowledge  of  its  limitations  —  into 
the  work  of  the  great  Connecticut  thinker.1 
He  came  into  close  touch  also  with  other  virile 
minds  working  at  the  same  task  of  theological 
reconstruction.  With  Dr.  Munger  especially 
he  was  in  warm  and  helpful  friendship  and  ac- 
cord.2 Nevertheless  the  author  of  "The  Christ 
of  To-day"  has  a  richer  endowment,  an  ampler 
equipment,  as  well  as  a  larger  field  of  influence, 

1  See  e.g.,  his  address  at  the  unveiling  of  the  memorial  tablet 
to  Dr.  Munger  in  Bacon's  Theodore  Thornton  Munger  (p.  377), 
for  his  estimate  of  Bushnell. 

3  The  above  address  reveals  the  closeness  of  the  tie  between 
them. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  89 

than  either  Bushnell  or  Munger  or  any  other  of 
the  framers  of  the  New  Theology. 

ii 

To  understand  Dr.  Gordon's  contribution  to 
theology  it  is  necessary,  before  outlining  its 
content,  to  pause  for  a  moment  upon  his  con- 
ception of  the  nature  and  function  of  theology 
itself.  The  best  and  most  complete  statement 
of  his  view  of  theology  is  given  in  his  Lyman 
Beecher  lectures  "Ultimate  Conceptions  of 
Faith"  (1903),  undoubtedly  the  noblest  sketch 
of  the  function,  scope,  and  relations  of  theology, 
next  to  Fairbairn's  "Place  of  Christ  in  Modern 
Theology,"  in  modern  theological  literature.  In 
this  volume  Dr.  Gordon  makes  full  recognition 
of  three  sources  essential  to  the  formation  of  an 
adequate  theology,  lacking  in  almost  all  treatises 
of  American  theology  before  his  time  —  and  in 
most  since,  as  well  —  history,  philosophy,  and 
experience. 

In  spite  of  the  high  purpose,  logical  acumen 
and  intense  industry  of  the  New  England 
Theology,  this  careful  student  of  it  perceived 
how  detached  and  provincial  it  was.  He  saw 
clearly  that  no  theology  could  be  complete  and 
commanding  that  did  not  keep  faith  not  only 


90  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

with  the  basal  religious  instincts  and  the 
principles  of  unity  and  order  but  also  with  the 
great  developmental  movement  of  Christian 
doctrine  through  the  ages.  Aware  of  this,  he 
fitted  himself  to  cope  with  the  fundamental 
problems  of  the  science  of  theology  by  acquaint- 
ing himself,  as  far  as  possible,  with  its  history. 
In  that  vast  field,  comprising  centuries  of 
laborious  thought,  though  by  no  means  a 
technical  scholar,  he  early  made  himself  well  at 
home.  With  the  passion  for  inclusiveness  of 
vision  that  characterizes  him,  he  swept  the 
whole  heavens  of  historical  theology,  detecting, 
with  an  insight  that  is  little  short  of  genius 
the  truly  great  and  constructive  minds  that 
have  made  Christian  theology  what  it  is.  Very 
real  and  living  these  elect  spirits  became  to  him, 
especially  Origen,  Athanasius,  Augustine, 
Luther,  Calvin,  Edwards,  N.  W.  Taylor,  Butler, 
and  Maurice.  True,  he  leaves  vast  tracts  of 
theological  literature,  particularly  that  of  the 
mediaeval  period,  almost  unnoticed;  but  this  is 
atoned  for  by  the  acute  discernment  with  which 
he  detects  the  most  significant  minds  and  the 
movements  of  largest  import  in  the  history  of 
theology  as  a  whole. 
Yet  competent  as  is  his  knowledge  of  historic 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  91 

theology,  far  richer  and  more  potent  in  his 
thinking  is  his  knowledge  of  philosophy.  Here 
he  is  not  without  an  American  predecessor  in 
the  eminent  Yale  theologian   Samuel  Harris; 
but  the  latter' s  philosophy  sits  far  looser  to 
his    theology  than    does    that   of   this    pulpit 
theologian.  Rare  indeed  is  the  theologian  who 
has  so  keen  a  sense  as  Dr.  Gordon  of  the  per- 
tinence of  philosophy  to  his  task.  There  have 
been  many  theologians  who  have  been  diligent 
plodders    in    philosophy   but   few  who,    like 
Coleridge  and  Maurice  and  James  Marsh  and 
Gordon,  have  so  caught  its  spirit  as  to  carry 
its  ample  air  and  wide  horizons  into  the  too 
often   provincial   realm   of   theology.   He   has 
the    philosophic    mind    in    singularly    fruitful 
harmony  with  the  theological  and  homiletical. 
He  has  drunk  deep  at  the  living  fountains  of 
philosophy,  especially  those  flowing  from  the 
hills  of  Hellas.  Plato  is  his  chief  master  in  the 
lore  of  the  mind.  If  some  one  would  extract 
from  his  writings  his  references  to  Plato,  they 
would  make  a  signal  volume  of  Platoniana.  If 
Plato  is  entitled  to  be  regarded,   as  Edward 
Caird  has  called  him,  the  "father  of  theology," 
the  value  of  a  sympathetic  knowledge  of  one 
who  has  exercised  so  vast  an  influence  upon 


92  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Christian  thought  will  be  understood.1  When 
to  this  is  added  an  almost  equal  appreciation 
of  Aristotle  the  rarity  of  his  philosophical 
equipment  will  be  divined.  It  is  a  familiar  say- 
ing that  every  thinker  is  born  either  a  Platonist 
or  an  Aristotelian.  The  saying  is  falsified,  or  at 
least  exceptionalized,  in  the  case  of  George  A. 
Gordon,  for  he  was  born  both  Platonist  and 
Aristotelian,  or  rather  reborn,  through  the 
throes  of  a  severe  intellectual  discipline. 

If  his  study  of  the  history  of  philosophy  had 
been  confined  to  these  two  masters  alone,  it 
would  have  been  of  eminent  worth  to  his  work, 
but  it  was  not.  It  embraced  a  wide  outlook  over 
philosophy  as  a  whole.  The  systems  of  Spinoza, 
Kant,  Fichte,  and  Hegel  are  no  salt,  un- 
plumbed,  estranging  seas  to  him.  Of  more 
worth,  however  than  his  knowledge  of  the 
history  of  philosophy  is  his  penetration  into  its 
fundamental  problems  and  their  intimate  re- 
lation to  religious  problems.  Few  philosophical 
idealists  have  equaled  the  power  of  application 
with  which  he  has  pressed  home  against  every 

1  This  attachment  to  Plato  may  be  illustrated  by  the  following 
incident:  A  question  once  arose  between  Dr.  Gordon  and  a  friend 
as  to  a  point  in  the  Republic,  whereupon  he  pulled  a  copy,  in 
the  original,  from  his  pocket  and  turned  at  once  to  the  disputed 
passage.  Those  who  to-day  carry  a  work  of  Plato  about  with 
them  are  few. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  93 

form  of  materialism  the  truth  that,  take  what- 
ever view  of  the  universe  you  choose,  —  call 
it  matter  or  force  or  whatever  you  like, —  you 
are  still  reading  it  in  terms  of  the  mind  itself, — 
the  only  pathway  by  which  we  can  get  to  nature 
being  that  of  our  own  thought.  Why  not  then 
construe  our  universe  through  that  which  is 
highest  in  us,  rather  than  what  is  lower?  Ob- 
serve, too,  with  what  pertinence  and  illumina- 
tion he  makes  use  of  the  logical  principle  of 
identity  and  difference  in  relating  the  humanity 
of  Jesus  to  that  of  other  men  in  his  "The 
Christ  of  To-day."  x 

This  is  philosophy  put  to  usury,  not  laid 
away  in  the  napkin  of  ornamental  lecture-room 
phrases,  or  buried  in  recondite  treatises,  but 
coined  and  put  into  the  common  currency  of 
thinking  men  and  women  the  world  around. 
Yet  if  any  one  imagines  that  this  student  of  the 
history  of  theology,  this  lover  of  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  rests  his  theology  upon  historic 
perspective  and  philosophic  principle  alone,  he 
is  quite  wrong.  He  goes  deeper  than  that  by 
his  own  testimony:  "The  soul  in  Christian 
experience,  resting  upon  God  and  open  to  his 
discipline,  is  the  great  generative  source  of  the 
1  The  Christ  of  To-day,  p/94  ff. 


94  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

convictions  that  support  the  higher  work  of  the 
world."  x  "It  is  the  heart  that  makes  the  theo- 
logian." * 

Yet  experience,  he  points  out,  is  not  an  indi- 
vidual affair  only,  it  is  also  racial,  social.  In 
other  words,  it  is  the  Christian  consciousness 
that  gives  birth  to  Christian  theology.  Nor  is  it 
that  alone.  Its  fountainhead  lies  deeper  still. 
"Beneath  human  experience  and  filling  it  is 
the  Holy  Ghost."  3  Gordon,  like  Munger,  con- 
stantly makes  "the  appeal  to  life."  This  for 
him  is  the  test  of  truth,  —  sharp  and  subtle,  — 
and  not  its  test  only  but  its  verification.  That 
which  cannot  be  verified  by  answering  to  the 
needs  of  life  cannot  be  known  for  certainty  as 
truth. 

This  conviction  of  the  fundamental  place  of 
experience  in  religion  came  to  him  as  the  deliver- 
ance from  a  period  of  unrest  in  his  own  quest 
for  truth,  of  which  he  gives  a  rapid  description 
under  the  transparent  veil  of  the  mental  history 
of  "a  friend."  It  was  a  period,  if  not  of  storm 
and  stress,  at  least  of  doubt  and  questioning.4 
It  began  during  his  life  at  Harvard,  with  the 
dawning  of  the  conviction  that  religious  truth, 

1  Ultimate  Conceptions  of  Faith,  p.  92. 

•  Ibid.,  p.  93.  » Ibid.,  p.  95.  « Ibid.,  p.  82. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  95 

like  that  of  science,  must  be  amenable  to  reason 
and  criticism,  and  continued  until  the  opening 
of  his  first  pastorate.  At  that  time  there  came  to 
him  the  realization  of  the  primacy  of  experience 
as  the  only  fundamental  ground  of  a  conviction 
that  can  endure  the  most  severe  testing  of  the 
critical  reason. 

in 

That  there  was  sore  need  of  a  reconstructed 
theology  was  clearer  to  no  thinker  of  his  time 
than  to  this  man  who  understood  the  meaning 
and  value  of  the  past.  His  conviction  of  the 
inadequacy  of  the  older  theology  and  his  con- 
ception of  the  lines  upon  which  reconstruction 
should  be  carried  on  are  admirably  stated  in 
three  successive  articles  of  permanent  worth 
which  should  be  republished  in  book  form: 
"The  New  Orthodoxy  and  the  Old"  (1893), 
"The  Collapse  of  the  New  England  Theology" 
(1908),  and  "Some  Things  Worth  While  in 
Theology"  (1910). 

The  first  of  these,  written  in  an  irenic  vein, 
is  a  clear  and  impressive  evaluation  of  that 
which  is  permanent  and  eternal  in  theology 
and  an  equally  clear  statement  of  that  which  is 
changing  and  in  need  of  revision.  The  necessity 


96  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

of  a  true  balance  between  these  "two  great 
determinative  ideas"  is  strongly  urged.  Prefer- 
ence is  freely  given  to  "the  abiding  side  of  the 
Christian  faith";  but  due  recognition  of  the  per- 
manent, as  is  made  clear,  demonstrates  all  the 
more  surely  the  necessity  of  progress,  especially 
in  view  of  the  confusion  and  the  seriousness  of 
the  issue  with  the  opposing  forces  of  the  present 
age.  "  If  the  church  could  but  know  the  wilder- 
ness of  unbelief  in  which  she  is  campaigning, 
if  she  could  but  guess  at  the  boundless  antago- 
nisms in  the  centers  where  she  is  set,  how  eager 
her  sympathies  would  become  toward  all  sincere 
believers,  how  great  her  unity  of  spirit,  how 
vast  her  bonds  of  peace,  how  completely  healthy 
and  exempt  from  all  compulsions  would  be  the 
flow  of  faith  and  power  within  her  large  and 
happy  heart."  x  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  term 
"New  Orthodoxy"  which  Dr.  Gordon  here 
employs  does  not  reappear  in  his  writings,  nor 
does  he  make  use  of  the  phrase  "The  New 
Theology."  Neither  designation,  in  fact,  was 
adequate  to  the  wealth  of  the  larger  views 
coming  into  recognition. 
"  ."The  Collapse  of  the  New  England  Theol- 

*  "The  Contrast  and  Agreement  between  the  New  Orthodoxy 
and  the  Old,"  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  XIX,  no.  109,  p.  n. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  97 

°gy"  'ls  a  piece  of  analytic  and  synthetic  criti- 
cism which  it  would  be  difficult  to  match  in 
the  entire  field  of  theological  literature,  brilliant 
in  analysis,  just  in  appraisal,  unsparing  in  its 
exposure  of  defects,  reverent  and  generous  in 
appreciation  of  merits.  In  its  searching  flame 
the  wood,  hay,  and  stubble  of  the  New  England 
systems  go  up  in  a  smoke  as  thick  as  the  ob- 
scurity they  had  created;  though  the  systemati- 
cians  themselves  are  saved,  yet  so  as  by  fire. 
Not  only  so,  but  there  are  left  also  the  under- 
lying foundations  upon  which  they  erected 
their  inadequate  structures.  For  this  critic  is 
anything  but  iconoclast  and  cannot  condemn 
the  old  orthodoxy  without  paying  tribute  "to 
the  surviving  worth  in  it,  to  the  eternal  soul 
that  we  recognize  all  the  more  clearly  that  the 
old  formalism  in  which  it  lived  has  passed 
away.  This  precious  survival  is  both  subjective 
and  objective,  a  tradition  of  great  men  devoted 
to  the  supreme  human  interest  and  a  cluster  of 
shining  and  imperishable  ideas."  x 

"Some  Things  Worth  While  in  Theology,"  a 
lecture  before  the  Harvard  Summer  School  of 
Theology,  in  1910,  is  a  rare  epitome  of  the 

'  "The  Collapse  of  the  New  England  Theology,"  Harvard 
Theological  Review^  vol.  I,  no.  2,  p.  154. 


98   PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

findings  obtained  by  the  sense  of  values  in  the 
sphere  of  theology.  It  is  full  of  the  swing  and 
lilt  of  a  strong  mind  rejoicing  like  David  before 
the  ark  of  the  Lord.  The  things  which  seem  to 
him  worth  while  are:  a  just  perspective,  insight 
into  the  world  of  persons,  originality,  getting 
at  the  interior  meaning  of  traditional  ideas,  the 
way  of  salvation,  and  the  demonstration  of  the 
spirit  —  the  principle  of  unity  in  the  series 
being  "the  living  soul  of  man  in  fellowship  with 
other  souls  and  with  God."  l  The  lecture  closes 
with  a  noble  plea  for  the  inclusion  of  both 
intellect  and  sympathy,  science  and  sentiment, 
in  theology.  "Between  religion  as  a  mindless 
product  and  religion  as  the  issue  of  an  ir- 
reverent mind,  there  is  little  to  choose." 

We  are  not  shut  in,  however,  to  either  alternative; 
we  hear  the  call  of  the  truly  scientific  intellect  that 
loves  facts,  that  lives  in  them,  that  seeks  for  reality 
in  the  suffering  and  achieving  spirit,  that  finds  it 
there  as  the  miner  discovers  gold  in  the  rock,  that 
digs  it  and  brings  it  forth,  passes  it  through  its 
thousand  furnace  fires,  and  presents  it  at  last  to  the 
world  that  cares  for  reality  beyond  everything  else 
in  utter  purity  and  splendor.2 

x"Some  Things  Worth  While  in  Theology,"  Harvard  Theo- 
logical Review,  vol.  Ill,  no.  4,  p.  400. 
a  Ibid.,  p.  401. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  99 

IV 

The  theology  which  Dr.  Gordon  constructed 
upon  the  realities  of  the  life  of  the  spirit,  but- 
tressed by  reason  and  grounded  in  history, 
while  it  has  thus  the  substantial  quality  of 
continuity  with  the  past  necessary  to  save  any 
system  from  the  irony  of  individualism,  bears 
also  the  marks  of  his  own  genius  in  abundant 
measure.  It  has  individuality,  persuasiveness, 
power.  It  rises,  by  virtue  of  its  own  outstanding 
superiority,  to  take  its  place  among  the  few 
signal  and  permanent  products  of  American 
theology.  Let  us  endeavor  to  trace  its  leading 
ideas  as  far  as  possible  genetically.  Its  polar 
principles  are  Incarnation  and  Theodicy,  or, 
in  other  terms,  the  centrality  of  Christ  as  "the 
creative  principle  in  theology"  and  the  abso- 
lute "Moralism"  or  "Humanism"  of  God. 
Either  truth  alone  would  be  meaningless,  in- 
explicable, impotent. 

The  first  to  appear  in  the  order  of  his  think- 
ing, or  at  least  in  the  order  of  its  presentation, 
is  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  as  set  forth 
in  the  volume  "The  Christ  of  To-day"  (1895). 
The  title,  though  pertinent,  is  inadequate,  for 
the  Christ  presented  is  the  Christ  of  "yesterday, 


ioo  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

to-day,  and  forever,"  the  "Flying  Goal,"  in 
one  of  his  favorite  phrases,  of  humanity.  The 
intellectual  strength  and  spiritual  insight  of  this 
volume,  devoted  to  a  great  and  heretofore 
largely  neglected  theme,  give  it  a  place  of  unique 
importance  in  American  theology.  While  it 
lacks  the  wealth  and  maturity  and  poise  of  its 
author's  later  work,  it  throbs  with  religious  and 
theological  passion,  directed  by  a  calm  and  sane 
rationality.  The  discussion  opens  with  an  arrest- 
ing survey  of  the  new  world  into  which  our  age 
has  come  with  the  expansion  of  its  ideas  and 
the  enrichment  of  its  life.  Then  follows  the 
query  whether  Christ  can  fulfill  the  need  of 
this  larger  age.  To  meet  it,  the  author  points 
out  "the  gains  manward  and  Godward  in 
current  thought  of  Christ."  "We  are  com- 
pelled to  acknowledge  that  the  secret  molding 
energy  of  our  entire  civilization  is  the  mind  of 
Christ."  x  Through  Him  we  interpret  man,  God, 
and  nature.  "We  baptize  the  creative  Being 
behind  nature  and  behind  human  history  and 
life  into  the  name  of  Christ."  2  In  words  that 
glow  with  the  splendor  of  his  theme,  the  author 
unfolds  the  half-recognized  sway  that  the 

1  "Some  Things  Worth  While  in  Theology,"  Harvard  Theo- 
logical Review,  vol.  Ill,  no.  4,  p.  51.  *Ibid.,  p.  91. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON" 

Christ  of  to-day  exercises  over  our  total  world 
of  ideals  and  conduct,  far  less  complete  than 
it  should  be,  yet  far  greater  than  we  often 
realize.  Not  content  with  the  mere  fact  of 
Christ's  potency  he  carries  it  back  to  its  primal 
source  .and  finds  in  God  "the  Eternal  Prototype 
of  humanity."  "And  what  is  this  Eternal 
Pattern  or  Prototype,  but  the  Son  of  Man  of 
the  synoptic  gospels,  the  Only-begotten  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  the  Mediator  of  the  Pauline 
epistles,  the  High  Priest  without  descent  of 
the  letter  to  the  Hebrews,  the  God  of  God, 
Light  of  Light,  begotten,  not  made,  of  the 
Nicene  creed?"1' 

Here  is  the  magna  charta  of  the  Christocentric 
movement  in  American  theology,  "theocentric 
in  conclusion  but  Christocentric  in  its  method 
of  interpretation."  2  The  author  acknowledges 
his  indebtedness  to  Fairbairn's  great  work  "The 
Place  of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology,"  yet  it 
is  clearly  impetus  rather  than  direction  that 
he  has  gained  from  it,  for  the  discussion  moves 
out  with  superb  vigor  upon  its  own  original 
lines  and  with  constant  reference  to  the  home 

1  "Some  Things  Worth  While  in  Theology,"  Harvard  Theo- 
logical Review,  vol.  Ill,  no.  4,  p.  115. 

3  "The  Collapse  of  the  New  England  Theology,"  Harvard  Theo- 
logical Review,  vol.  I,  no.  2,  p.  163. 


BROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

environment  created  by  the  originative  abso- 
lutism of  Edwards  and  the  critical  protest  of 
American  Unitarianism.  To  the  latter  movement 
he  offers  frank  and  searching  criticism  and 
equally  generous  and  discriminating  apprecia- 
tion. His  is,  indeed,  a  two-edged  sword,  dividing 
asunder  bone  and  marrow. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  the  subsequent  de- 
velopment of  the  Christocentric  theology,  the 
work  is  lacking  in  some  respects,  particularly  in 
its  failure  to  discriminate  clearly  between  the 
Christ  of  history  and  the  Christ  of  experience, 
a  duality  in  unity  that  still  awaits  adequate 
interpretation.  Nor  does  the  author  realize  as 
clearly  as  can  be  done  to-day  how  drastic  and 
thoroughgoing  must  be  the  application  of  the 
spirit  of  Christ  to  modern  civilization  if  it  is 
to  be  released  from  its  evils  and  defects.  But  in 
its  profound  sense  of  the  impact  of  Christ  upon 
the  modern  world  and  the  need  of  a  valuation 
of  Him,  metaphysical  and  moral,  adequate  to 
account  for  this  effect,  it  is  of  large  and  per- 
manent value  and  is  worthy  to  be  compared 
in  pertinence  and  sagacity  with  Schleiermacher's 
epochal  "Addresses  to  the  Cultured  Despisers 
of  Religion." 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  103 


Although  the  subject  of  the  most  profound 
of  the  initial  utterances  of  Dr.  Gordon  is  the 
incarnation,  the  reality  of  the  Absolute,  the 
"aboriginal"  truth  upon  which  his  whole 
theology  rests,  already  appears  in  the  back- 
ground. It  had,  in  fact,  disclosed  itself  in  his 
first  volume,  "The  Witness  to  Immortality" 
(1893).  It  comes  out  in  full  radiance  in  his 
brief  but  significant  volume,  consisting  of  the 
first  Ingersoll  lecture,  "Immortality  and  the 
New  Theodicy"  (1897). 

The  term  "theodicy"  is  one  which  he  takes 
over  from  philosophy  and  domesticates  in  the 
soil  of  theology.  It  means,  as  he  employs  it, 
the  Divine  direction  and  destiny  of  the  uni- 
verse, including  both  nature  and  humanity. 
How  does  God  guide  the  ongoing  of  this  mighty 
and  mysterious  cosmos?  And  what  is  to  be  the 
outcome  of  it  all?  The  immediate  pressure  of 
this  problem  upon  his  mind  and  heart  was 
caused  DV  the  survival  of  the  old  Calvinistic- 
Edwardean  particularistic  predestinationism  by 
which  he  found  himself  confronted.  How  could 
the  truth  of  the  Divine  absoluteness  be  sus- 
tained and  yet  saved  from  the  paralogism  and 


104   PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

self-contradiction  into  which  it  had  fallen?  The 
solution  of  this  problem  which  he  reached 
reflects  the  daring,  directness,  and  outreach 
of  his  own  unfettered  thought.  Whether  ac- 
cepted or  not,  it  constitutes  a  genuine  and 
abiding  contribution  to  the  speculative  theology 
of  his  time  and  of  the  future. 

The  defect  in  the  New  England  theologians 
which  most  amazed  and  offended  the  mind  of 
this  unbiased  critic  was  not  merely  the  in- 
humanity of  their  theology  but  the  utter  in- 
consistency of  their  doctrine  of  the  nature  of 
God  and  the  doctrine  of  His  decrees.  That  a 
God  whose  perfection  was  the  theme  of  their 
rapt  contemplation  and  praise  should  be  so 
imperfect  and  undivine  as  to  sentence  the 
greater  part  of  mankind  to  perdition,  appeared 
to  him  inexplicable.  His  critique  of  the  Old 
Theology  centers  here.  With  intense  earnestness 
he  charges  home  upon  the  unco9  orthodox,  the 
limitations  of  a  God  content  with  saving  a 
remnant,  unwilling  or  unable  to  save  all.1  To 
confine  the  moral  opportunity  of  man  to  this 
life  is  surely  unworthy  of  a  Perfect  Being.2 
"The  question  is  not  what  men  deserve  but 

1  Immortality  and  the  New  Theodicy,  p.  72. 
a  Ibid.,  p.  76. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  105 

what  God's  honor  demands."1  The  issue  which 
he  here  lays  down  he  resumes  again  and  again 
and  always  with  fresh  force  and  ammunition. 
In  a  later  lecture,  "Faith  and  its  Catego- 
ries," he  deals  Augustinianism  a  telling  blow 
by  exposing  its  illogical  nature,  thus  piercing 
it  at  its  supposedly  strongest  point:  "The 
Absolute  Will  is  absolute  in  goodness;  therefore 
the  deduction  that  God  is  on  the  side  of  some 
men  and  against  others  is  an  illogical  deduction. 
The  derivation  from  this  will  of  absolute  good- 
ness of  two  decrees,  one  of  salvation  for  a  cer- 
tain portion  of  mankind,  and  another  of  repro- 
bation for  the  rest  of  the  race  is  a  supreme 
instance  of  bad  logic." 2 

It  is  impossible  to  refute  this  charge,  put 
with  the  virility  and  clarity  of  which  Dr. 
Gordon  is  master.  All  the  forces  of  logic  and 
life,  of  reason  and  sentiment,  of  Christianity 
itself,  are  with  him.  But  after  all,  the  crucial 
question  is:  What  will  he  substitute  for  it? 
If  the  salvation  of  only  a  part  of  the  race  is 
unworthy  of  its  Maker  —  what  then?  He  does 
not  hesitate.  He  accepts  to  the  full  the  clear 
alternative.  "Either  this  world  is  a  moral  world 

1  Immortality  and  the  New  Theodicy,  p.  77. 
8  Ultimate  Conceptions  of  Faith,  p.  126. 


io6  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

or  it  is  not;  if  it  is  a  moral  world  the  Creator's 
redeeming  interest  in  mankind  must  continue 
forever." x  And  this  redeeming  interest,  the 
"victorious  march  of  the  divine  persuasions,"  2 
he  leaves  us  no  room  to  doubt  will,  in  his  esti- 
mation, prove  availing.  He  is  satisfied  with  no 
compromise,  such  as  the  doctrine  of  future  pro- 
bation offered.  "Nor  are  alleviations  of  this 
dismal  hypothesis  at  all  sufficient;  such  as  the 
provision  of  a  future  chance  for  those  who  have 
had  no  Christian  opportunity  upon  earth."3 
No;  both  in  intent  and  accomplishment  the 
divine  redemption,  he  holds,  is  racial. 

Is  this  "Universalism,"  as  has  been  so  often 
charged  against  it?  Upon  the  basis  of  fair 
comparison,  as  well  as  in  the  author's  own 
mind,  it  is  by  no  means  identical  with  denomina- 
tional Universalism.  "Universalism  is  bold  to 
forecast  an  issue,  to  determine  a  result,  to  assert 
a  fact;  the  position  here  maintained  is  that  God's 
love  and  endeavor  are  for  all  his  children  and 
for  them  all  forever."  4  It  is  singular  how  little 
appeal,  or  reference,  to  Paul,  its  proponent 
makes  in  presenting  this  view.  I  recall  but  one 
allusion  to  Paul's  incomparable  Universalism, 

1  Immortality  and  the  New  Theodicy,  p.  88.     *  Ibid.,  p.  100. 
» Ibid.,  p.  77.  «  The  New  Epoch  for  Faith,  p.  278. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  107 

and  yet  this  Gordonian  universalism  comes  the 
nearest  to  reflecting  the  spirit  and  outlook  of 
the  great  apostle,  in  its  scope  and  motive,  of 
that  of  any  writer  on  theology  since  Origen. 

This  bold,  and  to  many  irreverently  hopeful, 
theodicy  is  no  mere  reaction  from  the  rigid 
orthodoxy  behind  and  about  him;  nor  is  it  the 
easygoing  speculation  of  a  loose  and  careless 
liberalism.  It  is  bound  up  with  a  conception  of 
God  which  is  part  of  the  very  fiber  of  its  pro- 
ponent's faith  and  with  a  belief  in  humanity 
and  its  destiny  which  cannot  be  detached  from 
his  conception  of  Christianity.  It  is,  in  other 
words,  in  his  mind  at  least,  essential  to  one 
of  those  "ultimates  of  faith"  —  without  which 
Christianity  would  be  a  trifling  superficialism  — •• 
the  goodness  of  God.  It  is  linked  up  also  with 
the  very  substance  of  individual  and  social 
salvation.  "In  order  to  be  able  to  save  souls," 
he  declares,  "one  must  believe  in  the  possibility 
of  saving  families,  societies,  nations,  the  human 
race."  z  "Hopeless  men,"  he  avers,  "are  godless 
men." * 

1  Ultimate  Conceptions  of  Faith,  p.  221. 
a  Through  Man  to  God,  p.  I. 


io8   PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

VI 

Yet  characteristic  and  highly  colored  as  is 
this  doctrine,  it  is  only  one  sector  of  a  consistent 
and  well-rounded  whole.  If  the  conception  of 
God  upon  which  it  rests  is  a  doctrine  of  the 
Absolute,  it  is  that  of  an  Absolute  whose  nature 
is  wholly  and  unreservedly  personal.  Few 
theologians,  if  any,  have  been  more  completely 
committed  to  the  principle  of  Personality  than 
Dr.  Gordon.  "For  many  years,"  to  quote  from 
a  letter  of  his,  "personality  has  been  to  me  the 
key  of  our  world  and  our  universe.  It  is  the  key, 
or  there  is  none."  That  true  personality  inheres 
in  God  as  well  as  in  man  is  his  unshaken  con- 
viction. By  it  he  means  no  mere  academic, 
depleted  wraith  of  personality.  He  is  not 
frightened  away  from  affirming  it  of  God 
by  any  warning  cry  of  "anthropomorphism." 
The  pathway  to  the  knowledge  of  God  is  to 
him  that  indicated  by  the  title  of  his  noblest 
volume  of  sermons,  "Through  Man  to  God." 
He  is  constantly  exalting  the  "humanism. 
of  God."  The  closing  sentences  of  his  great 
sermon  on  "The  Humanity  of  God"  succinctly 
express  his  faith  in  the  perfect  humanism  of 
God: 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  109 

The  humanity  of  God  is  given  in  the  humanity  of 
man;  it  is  given  supremely  in  the  humanity  of  Jesus. 
We  ascend  to  God  through  man  and  his  sovereign 
leader;  through  man  and  his  sovereign  leader  we 
receive  God.  This  is  our  faith.  Against  the  mild 
indifference  of  the  cosmos,  the  inscrutable  mysteries 
of  moral  wrong,  pain  and  death,  and  the  fearful 
inhumanities  of  man  to  man;  in  the  presence  of  the 
worthy,  in  the  presence  of  the  Worthiest,  we  believe 
in  the  dear,  eternal  humanity  of  God.1 

The  meaning  and  content  of  personality,  as 
related  to  God,  is  brought  out  in  various  lights 
in  his  volumes.  There  is  not  one  in  which  this 
doctrine  is  not  lucidly  and  forcefully  presented. 
Especially  rich  and  full  is  his  conception  of  it 
given  in  the  closing  chapter  of  "Ultimate  Con- 
ceptions of  Faith,"  the  volume  which,  in  his 
own  judgment  as  well  as  that  of  others,  repre- 
sents his  best  work.  The  meaning  of  God  for  the 
entire  inner  life  of  man  is  there  summarized 
as  follows: 

For  the  intellect  God  is  the  final  meaning  of  the 
universe.  .  .  .  For  the  aesthetic  sense  God  is  the 
significant  beauty  of  the  universe.  .  .  .  For  conscience 
God  is  the  final  moral  meaning  of  the  universe.  .  .  . 
For  the  will  God  is  the  doer  of  righteousness.  .  .  . 
Finally,  for  man,  God  is  the  person  in  whom  the 
ideal  meanings  of  life  are  gathered  and  authenticated. 
.  .  .  Our  God  is  the  Person  whose  life  is  an  infinite 

1  Through  Man  to  God,  p.  41. 


i  io  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

content  of  meanings.  These  meanings  are  in  man 
and  in  man's  world;  and  he  lifts  them  into  an 
Eternal  Person  as  their  logical  issue  and  assurance.1 

This  does  not  mean,  however,  as  the  author 
goes  on  to  point  out,  that  man  in  any  sense 
either  creates  or  independently  discovers  God. 
On  the  contrary  God  reveals  Himself  to  the 
outreaching  mind.  Revelation  and  discovery 
are  reciprocal. 

The  fundamental  position  of  faith  is  that  God  and 
man  are  implicated  each  in  the  other's  life,  as  Jacob 
and  the  angel  were  implicated.  They  are  interlocked 
in  a  tremendous  midnight  wrestle.  Everything  that 
God  bestows  man  wins  and  everything  that  man 
wins  God  bestows.  It  is  true  that  the  angel  came  to 
the  Israelite;  the  priority  therefore  belonged  to 
him.  .  .  .  We  love  God  because  he  first  loved  us.a 

Can  the  religious  mind  venture  fruitfully 
any  further  than  this  into  the  understanding 
of  the  Divine  Personality?  The  answer  to  that 
query  involves  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 
Dr.  Gordon  is  an  earnest  trinitarian,  one  of  the 
most  discerning  and  original  exponents  of  the 
doctrine  in  the  history  of  American  theology, 
which,  on  the  whole,  has  been  extremely  dull 
and  muddled  in  its  perception  of  the  meaning 

1  Ultimate  Conceptions  of  Faith,  pp.  333-35. 
8  Ibid.,  p.  339. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  in 

and  worth  of  this  most  profound  of  Christian 
doctrines.  Jonathan  Edwards  saw  deeply  into 
its  inner  meaning  but  the  New  England  theo- 
logians who  followed  him,  as  a  rule,  held  only  a 
blank,  mechanical  tritheism.  The  New  Theology 
with  its  better  understanding  and  appreciation 
of  the  Greek  theology  recovered  the  doctrine 
from  its  abasement.  A.  V.  G.  Allen,  Phillips 
Brooks,  Egbert  C.  Smyth,  James  M.  Whiton,1 
and  others  developed  what  may  almost  be 
called  a  new  Athanasianism. 

Dr.  Gordon  shared  this  historical  understand- 
ing of  the  Trinity  and  added  to  it  an  interpre- 
tation of  his  own  which  is  in  keeping  with  its 
historical  character,  yet  advances  a  fresh  con- 
ception that  throws  genuine  light  upon  the 
doctrine  out  of  the  deepening  social  experience 
of  our  time.  This  interpretation  is  in  brief  that,  j 
as  man  is  a  social  being  and  personality  a; 
social  and  not  merely  an  individual  reality, 
there  must  be  a  Source,  a  Prototype  of  human 
society  in  the  Being  from  whom  humanity  has 
issued.  In  other  words,  God  is  in  Himself  a 
"  Social  Being."  But  let  him  speak  in  his  own 
words : 

1  Dr.  Whiton  *s  Gloria  Patri  is  perhaps  the  best  attempt  to 
clarify  the  doctrine  for  the  general  reader  that  has  been  made. 


112  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

The  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  the  full 
statement  of  the  truth  at  which  Greek  mythology 
aimed;  the  discovery  of  the  social  nature  of  God 
through  the  social  nature  of  man  at  his  highest.  Put 
into  the  Godhead  some  reality  answering  to  the 
words  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  one  is  able  to  conceive  of  God's  existence  as 
ineffably  blessed,  and  as  containing  in  itself  the 
ground  of  human  society.1 

The  essential  nature  of  the  individual  human 
person  —  possessing  as  he  does,  within  himself, 
in  the  very  structure  of  self-consciousness,  the 
elements  of  tri-unity  —  was  used  as  the  key  to 
the  Divine  nature  even  as  early  as  Augustine's 
"De  Trinitate."  This  suggestion  that  the  con- 
ception be  broadened  to  include  the  nature  of 
human  society  itself  is  suggestive  and  contribu- 
tive,  if  it  be  regarded  as  an  auxiliary  to,  and 
not  a  substitute  for,  the  analogy  from  individual 
personality.  Personality  itself,  whether  in  man 
or  God,  is,  by  its  very  constitution,  a  self- 
society,  an  intercommunicative  unity.  In  man 
personal  life  is  limited  and  requires  external 
society  for  its  subsistence,  but  not  necessarily 
in  the  Being  from  whom  both  the  human  indi- 
vidual and  human  society  proceed. 
'  Op.  tit.,  p.  372. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  113 

VII 

From  his  profound  and  suggestive  con- 
ception of  God  we  turn  now  to  the  human 
world,  as  it  lies  in  the  mind  of  this  capacious 
and  unfettered  thinker.  In  contrast  with  the 
impoverished,  barren,  shadowed  human  world 
of  the  old  theology,  with  its  doctrine  of  human 
depravity  and  its  suspicion  of  the  innate  in- 
stincts of  the  heart,  how  captivating  and  ex- 
pansive is  our  human  life,  as  the  New  Theology 
sees  it!  Nowhere  does  this  hopeful  and  hospit- 
able view  of  human  life  appear  more  richly 
than  in  the  volume  of  Lowell  lectures  delivered 
by  Dr.  Gordon  on  the  threshold  of  the  new 
century,  "The  New  Epoch  for  Faith"  (1901). 
Its  theme  is  a  survey  of  the  gains  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  as  the  century  of  "the  advent 
of  humanity."  The  mood  in  which  America 
entered  the  portals  of  the  twentieth  century, 
little  foreseeing  what  was  to  come,  was  one  of 
grateful  retrospect  and  boundless  hope.  In  these 
vivid  yet  serene  lectures  this  mood  of  gratitude 
and  anticipation  finds  unsurpassed  expression. 
The  higher  gains  of  the  later  nineteenth  century, 
in  scientific  and  social  progress,  its  doubts  as 
well  as  its  return  to  faith,  are  here  appraised  in 


H4  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

the  light  of  religion  and  the  greater  light  of 
Christianity.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a 
saner,  more  wholesome,  more  idealistic  view  of 
life  lived  in  the  light  of  Christian  faith.  Whether 
the  "things  expected"  with  which  the  volume 
closes  are  as  certain  as  the  "things  assumed" 
with  which  it  commences,  remains  for  the  future 
to  determine.  The  expectation  cherished  by  the 
author  is  at  least  not  one  that  is  easily  defeated: 
"It  is  expected,  finally,  that  all  contradictions 
of  human  hope  will  prove  but  mightier  ful- 
fillments of  it."  A  prophetic  and  heartening 
word  this,  in  view  of  the  unforeseen  devastation 
and  chaos  which  have  since  developed,  caused 
by  the  greatest  self-apostasy  of  which  this 
halting  old  world  has  ever  been  guilty.  Three 
notably  brilliant  and  suggestive  discussions 
deserve  attention  in  this  volume:  action  and 
reaction  in  the  spiritual  life,  the  place  of  senti- 
ment in  religion,  and  the  meaning  of  history, 
defined  as  "the  study  of  reality  through  the 
process  of  its  development."  Each  of  these 
might  well  have  been  expanded  into  a  volume. 

In  Dr.  Gordon's  vision  of  human  life  —  its 
movement  and  its  ends  —  very  large  place  is 
occupied  by  the  Ideal.  Through  our  ideals  God 
reveals  Himself.  In  their  light  we  see  light. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  115 

"We  do  not  discover  our  ideals;  they  discover 
us."  x  This  intimate  relation  of  Revelation  and 
the  Ideal  is  fully  brought  out  in  a  volume  of 
sermons  bearing  this  title,  published  in  1913, 
the  residuum,  as  he  tells  us  in  the  preface,  of 
his  "audacious  dream,"  cherished  for  years,  of 
a  volume  on  "Revelation."  These  sermons  are 
simpler,  less  taxing  and  sustained  than  any 
other  of  his  productions,  but  full  of  beauty,  of 
wisdom,  of  rebuke,  and  of  courage  for  the 
struggle  against  obstacles.  For  this  keen  ob- 
server of  human  nature  and  of  the  daily  con- 
flicts of  the  soul  knows  well  how,  as  he  puts  it 
in  an  earlier  volume,  "the  dust  of  the  actual 
is  blown  in  the  clean  and  shining  face  of  the 
ideal"2  and  with  what  foes  the  soul  has  to 
contend  if  it  is  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly 
vision.  With  gracious  sympathy  and  unfailing 
hopefulness  he  girds  the  warrior  for  his  task 
and  points  him  to  the  shining  heights  of  victory 
beyond. 

VIII 

We  have  seen  something  of  Dr.  Gordon's 
conception  of  Christ,  of  God  and  of  man.  Let 
us  ask,  finally,  concerning  his  conception  of 

1  Immortality  and  the  New  Theodicy,  p.  1 20. 
3  Through  Man  to  God,  p.  109. 


Ii6  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

nature.  Nature  is  to  his  mind,  as  to  many  an- 
other, the  great  enigma.  He  is  exceedingly 
sensitive  to  her  beauties  and  especially  to  her 
grandeurs.  Sublime  nature  scenes  fill  his  mind 
with  a  joy  and  an  awe  that  communicate 
themselves  with  the  greatest  vividness.  Moun- 
tains loom  vast  and  alluring  before  his  imagina- 
tion, sunsets  paint  his  memory  with  undying 
glories,  rivers  flow  serene  and  majestic  through 
the  fields  of  his  thought.  He  is  an  ardent  nature 
lover.  He  finds  God  in  her.  And  yet  he  finds 
nature  far  inferior  to  man  as  a  revelation.  He 
is  conscious,  too,  of  the  reverse  aspect  of 
nature,  her  wildness,  her  independence,  her 
power  to  thwart  and  stifle  the  life  of  the  spirit. 
He  is  sure  that  she  issues  from  the  same  divine 
Fountainhead  as  man,  yet  —  how? 

His  study  of  philosophy  has  made  clear  to 
him  the  fact  that  the  mind  impresses  its  own 
forms  upon  nature.  "Without  man,"  he  ex- 
claims, "what  a  strange  ghost  nature  be- 
comes." x  Yet  he  assigns  to  nature  a  certain 
independent  realm  and  reality  of  her  own. 
Nevertheless  he  is  unwilling  to  allow  that  there 
is  any  radical  cleavage  between  the  world  of 
nature  and  the  human  world.  To  him  the  dis- 

1  Through  Man  to  God,  p.  90. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  117 

tinction  between  natural  and  revealed  religion 
is  an  "unholy  distinction."  z 

Nature's  values  for  the  spirit  life,  when 
rightly  seen  and  used  —  her  ordered,  depend- 
able uniformity,  the  majestic  movement  of  her 
laws,  the  silent  witness  of  her  beauty  —  are  so 
rich  and  satisfying  to  the  thoughtful  soul, 
meditating  on  her  laws  day  and  night,  that 
many  a  mind  finds  it  difficult  to  discover  any 
place  for  miracle.  So  incongruous  and  burden- 
some did  the  weight  of  miracles  come  to  seem 
to  Dr.  Gordon  that  it  at  length  aroused  him 
to  open  and  deliberate  revolt.  The  occasion 
was  the  invitation  to  deliver  the  Nathanael 
W.  Taylor  lectures  at  Yale  University  in  1909. 
For  this  he  selected  as  his  theme  "Religion  and 
Miracle."  His  purpose,  which  was  not  to  destroy 
miracle  but  to  show  its  relative  unimportance, 
was  carried  out  with  admirable  cogency  and  in 
a  catholic  and  convincing  spirit.  His  thesis  is 
that  miracle  is  non-essential  because  unverifiable 
in  experience,  "and  it  is  clear  that  the  unveri- 
fiable can  never  remain  an  essential  part  of  a 
reasonable  faith."  2  The  discussion  is  free  from 
dogmatism  or  assertiveness.  Belief  in  the  Virgin 

1  Harvard  Theological  Review,  vol.  I,  no.  2,  p.  145. 
*  Religion  and  Miracle,  p.  38. 


Ii8  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Birth  is  treated  with  respect  but  it  is  declared 
to  be  "immaterial  how  Jesus  began  or  how  he 
came  into  the  world."  x  "For  myself,"  the  lec- 
turer affirms,  "I  forget  to  raise  the  question, 
even  in  thought,  how  this  child  began  to  be; 
with  the  wise  men  I  can  only  open  my  heart  in 
homage  and  gifts."2  Concerning  the  resurrec- 
tion he  states:  "The  essential  thing  here  is  the 
assurance  of  a  risen  Lord;  we  are  not  supremely 
concerned  about  the  manner  of  the  resurrec- 
tion; what  we  desire  is  assurance  of  the  fact."  3 
And  of  the  fact  he  finds  ample  assurance. 

The  whole  presentation  is  an  illuminating 
study  in  spiritual  emphasis  and  as  such  has 
permanent  value;  but  as  compared  with  his 
other  theological  enterprises,  one  cannot  help 
raising  the  question  whether  the  game  was 
worth  the  candle  —  Dr.  Gordon's  candle.  The 
appearance  of  the  volume  brought  a  consider- 
able storm  of  protest  and  attack  during  which 
the  storm-center  wrote  to  a  friend:  "I  am 
getting  a  terrible  pounding  from  all  over  the 
country .  .  .  and  some  from  good  men  whom  I 
deeply  respect  and  truly  love.  Since  it  is  said 
that  'the  way  of  the  transgressor  is^hard'  and 

1  Religion  and  Miracle,  p.  96. 

,« Ibid.t  p.  105.  3  Ibid.,  p.  107. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  119 

that  'the  way  of  the  prophet  is  hard'  I  am  not 
quite  sure  which  way  I  am  on.  I  think, 
however,  that  I  am  following  the  Gleam" 

IX 

The  portrait  of  George  A.  Gordon  as  pri- 
marily a  theologian,  here  presented,  will  un- 
doubtedly occasion  surprise,  if  not  dissent,  on 
the  part  of  not  a  few  who  have  regarded  him 
as  a  preacher  rather  than  a  theologian.  This 
dissociation  of  the  theologian  and  preacher  is 
typical  of  a  very  general  misconception  of  the 
inner  kinship  of  these  allied  offices.  Theology  is 
supposed  by  many  intelligent  people  to  be  quite 
alien,  both  in  matter  and  spirit,  to  the  pulpit 
and  the  less  the  latter  has  to  do  with  it,  in  their 
judgment,  the  better.  It  must  be  confessed  that 
there  is  some  ground  for  this  notion.  Theology 
has  been  too  often  dragged  into  the  pulpit  in 
skeleton  form  and  the  rattle  of  its  bones  has 
either  depressed  the  pews  or  emptied  them. 
But  there  is  theology  and  theology;  and  when 
the  right  kind  of  theology,  clothed  in  flesh  and 
blood  and  vitalized  by  a  living  faith,  is  presented 
in  the  pulpit  it  wins  not  only  a  hearing,  but  a 
heeding.  The  pulpit  of  the  Old  South  Church 
has  given  a  great  congregation  theology  —  pure 


120  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

and  wholesome  —  from  the  lips  of  this  great 
preacher  for  thirty-five  years  and  they  have 
fed  upon  it  as  upon  the  finest  of  the  wheat; 
and  no  marvel.  It  has  been,  not  technical  or 
classroom  theology,  but  pulpit  theology. 

Dr.  Gordon's  sermons  differ  from  his  tech- 
nical lectures  and  papers  in  form  and  manner 
and  clothing.  They  are  simpler,  warmer,  closer 
to  every-day  life.  Yet  for  substance  of  doctrine 
they  are  the  same.  For  example,  the  conception 
of  Christ  which  in  "The  Christ  of  To-day"  is 
set  forth  panoplied  in  philosophical,  cosmical, 
and  doctrinal  terms  reappears  in  his  sermon 
"The  Moral  Ideal  in  Christ,"  thus:  "Our 
glorious  Master,  Christ,  is  our  end;  our  aim  is 
to  be  found,  whether  present  or  absent,  well 
pleasing  to  Him!  We  aim  at  becoming  like  Him, 
so  exalted  in  intellect,  so  purified  in  heart, 
made  so  great,  true,  and  tender  in  spirit,  that 
when  we  come  into  the  presence  of  His  soul  we 
shall  be  found  agreeable  to  His  will.  That  is 
Christianity." r  So  with  other  of  the  great 
theological  doctrines,  which  will  be  found 
throughout  his  sermons, —  not  as  mere  passing 
thoughts  but  as  seasoned,  tested,,  abiding 
convictions,  offered  as  nourishment  for  life 
•  Revelation  and  the  Ideal,  p.  277. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  121 

and  conduct.  This  preaching  is  not  open  to 
the  criticism  of  consisting  merely  of  gleams  of 
inspiration  and  ideal,  playing  mockingly  upon 
the  hard  surface  of  actual  life.  It  is  full  of  pity 
and  sympathy.  Nor  is  it  wanting  in  sternness 
when  occasion  demands.  It  flames  at  times  into 
prophetic  and  scorching  rebuke.  At  the  close  of 
a  severe  arraignment  of  the  lotus-eating,  pleas- 
ure-loving, self-indulgent  life  led  to-day  by 
many  in  our  churches  the  preacher  exclaimed: 
"Is  this  too  plain?  My  answer  is  that  there  is 
no  earthly  use  in  preaching  if  we  cannot  speak 
the  truth  to  one  another  in  love."  x  Despite 
the  wealth  and  charm  of  his  sermons,  with 
their  appeal  to  the  feelings  and  the  imagination, 
the  bulk  of  their  message  is  to  the  intellect.  No 
preacher  ever  honored  the  intelligence  of  his 
congregation  more  highly  than  the  pastor  of 
the  Old  South  Church  and  no  congregation  ever 
responded  to  the  confidence  more  splendidly. 
The  result  has  been  an  abiding  witness  to  the 
place  and  power  of  doctrinal  preaching  that 
has  done  much  to  keep  the  standard  of  the 
American  pulpit  from  declining. 

. *  Revelation  and  the  Ideal,  p.  276. 


122  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 


It  is  not  often  that  a  volume  crowns  an 
author's  work  with  such  consummate  grace 
and  spiritual  fruitage  as  "Aspects  of  the  In- 
finite Mystery"  (1916)  crowns  that  of  Dr. 
Gordon.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  he  will  give  us 
much  hereafter,  but,  however  rare  and  en- 
riching, it  will  be  largely  in  the  nature  of 
aftermath.  That  he  himself  regards  this  volume 
as  sustaining  a  peculiar  relationship  to  his 
total  work  is  evident  from  the  "Personal  Word" 
with  which  it  opens.  "While  I  am  not  aware  of 
any  contradiction  between  the  views  advanced 
here  and  the  views  presented  in  earlier  books 
of  mine,"  he  writes,  "I  am  conscious  of  new 
feelings  and  a  new  mood  of  the  spirit  toward 
the  Eternal  Wonder  that  is  the  object  of  all 
faith."  This  new  mood  is  as  evident  to  the 
reader  as  to  the  author.  It  is  a  book  of  ex- 
perience, ripe  and  rewarding  in  an  extraordi- 
nary degree.  One  of  the  main  evidences  of  its 
sincerity  and  maturity  is  the  great  sense  of 
mystery  which  envelops  it,  so  suggestively 
embodied  in  its  remarkable  —  one  may  say  its 
moving  and  majestic  —  title,  "Aspects  of  the 
Infinite  Mystery,"  a  title  made  more  signifi- 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  123 

cant  by  the  author's  confidence  with  the  reader 
as  to  his  choice  of  it.  The  title  bears  in  itself,  as 
a  quiet  lake  at  evening,  the  reflected  mind  of 
the  author.  It  mirrors  at  once  both  the  sunset 
clouds  of  his  mysticism  and  the  steadfast  stars 
of  his  rationalism.  "Mystery,"  infinite  Mystery, 
yes,  but  not  blank  mystery;  mystery  that  has 
"aspects,"  values,  meanings,  meanings  brought 
out  with  a  deft,  experienced  touch  which  leaves 
the  reader  even  more  deeply  impressed  with  the 
meanings  than  with  the  mystery.  In  this  harvest 
sheaf  are  garnered  all  the  cardinal  doctrines 
of  the  author  of  "The  Christ  of  Today"  and 
"Ultimate  Conceptions  of  Faith";  yet  each  has 
entered  a  riper  stage  and  is  bathed  in  a  warmer 
atmosphere.  The  universe,  as  it  has  unfolded 
itself  to  him  through  years  of  experience,  is  less 
clearly  defined  but  more  meaningful,  "its  ex- 
cellence so  great  that  our  thoughts  are  but 
shadows  upon  the  hillsides  of  the  Eternal 
reality."  ' 

XI 

The  reality  of  the  Eternal  recurs  as  the  su- 
preme truth  —  the  vast,  absorbing,  absolute, 
underlying  Reality,  God, —  here  conceived   as 
1  Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,  p.  15. 


124  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

"Absolute  Worth,"  the  Worth  which  can  in- 
here only  in  the  Absolute  Person.  The  reality 
of  this  Absolute  Person  is  assured  by  the  same 
"instinctive  reason"  that  assures  men  of  the 
reality  of  themselves,  of  nature,  and  of  other 
persons.  This  appeal  to  "instinctive  reason" 
as  the  basis  of  reality  is  a  reappearance  in 
another  form  of  the  same  truth  criterion  which 
the  author  has  applied  throughout  his  dis- 
cussions of  religious  truth,  as  it  is  admirably 
presented,  e.g.,  in  the  opening  chapter  of 
"The  New  Epoch  for  Faith":  "The  ultimate 
premise  of  thought  is  not  proof.  It  is  insight  or 
assumption  in  accordance  with  sane  reason." 

Thus,  we  find  the  author's  maturer  reflec- 
tion reaffirming  the  principle  with  which  he 
began  his  ministry:  experience  the  source  and 
validation  of  spiritual  truth.  The  assurance  with 
which  this  conviction  deepened  in  his  mind, 
as  he  watched  the  movement  of  religious 
thought,  is  reflected  in  a  letter,  written  in  1913, 
in  which  he  says:  "My  feeling  about  philosophy 
and  theology  is  this:  Both  must  become  the 
intellectual  form  of  a  profound  religious  con- 
viction, otherwise  they  are  not  nearly  so  useful 
as  a  heap  of  sawdust.  My  criticism  upon  all 
departments  of  the  general  discipline  known 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  125 

under  the  name  of  theology  is  that  it  is  not 
profound  enough  in  its  religious  experience." 

It  is  reassuring  to  find  that  in  this  late  and 
mature  meditation  upon  the  ways  of  God  with 
men,  Dr.  Gordon,  though  no  longer  buoyed  up 
by  the  surging  tides  that  give  strength  to  the 
speculative  instinct  in  the  earlier  years  of 
reflection,  nevertheless  holds  fast  to  his  great 
and  daring  assurance  as  to  the  Divine  respon- 
sibility to  man,  sure  to  issue  in  the  final  re- 
demption of  the  race;  and  that  with  a  still 
deeper  faith  and  more  filial  confidence.  Hither- 
to he  has  attached  the  doctrine  chiefly  to  God 
as  Creator  of  men  and  Master  of  their  destinies; 
now  he  attaches  it  still  more  directly  to  the 
simple  and  unavoidable  responsibility  entailed 
by  Fatherhood. 

A  parent  is  the  responsible  author  of  the  life  of 
another  and  therefore  under  the  most  sacred  obliga- 
tion to  care  for  that  life.  We  apply  this  to  God.  ...  I 
confess  that  I  stand  nowhere  more  at  peace  than  I 
do  on  this  ground.  When  I  implicate  the  honor  of 
God  and  involve  his  whole  character  with  the  tragedy 
of  time,  I  am  sure  that  I  am  rendering  him  the  hom- 
age of  the  absolute  truth;  I  thus  declare  my  belief 
that  he  will  stand  by  his  infinite  obligation  to  his 
rational  creatures  in  this  world.  If  that  is  not  homage 
I  do  not  know  the  meaning  of  the  word.1 
1  Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,  p.  94. 


126  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

In  all  the  vast  literature  of  Christian  theol- 
ogy since  Paul,  the  thinker  has  yet  to  be  found 
who  has  had  the  insight  and  the  faith  — 
should  we  not  say  the  courage  ?  —  to  rest  the 
conviction  of  universal  redemption  so  simply, 
completely,  and  yet  with  so  rational  a  basis, 
upon  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  The  tremendous 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  this  faith  do  not  escape 
him;  but  they  are  such  as  attach  to  the  belief 
in  Divine  Fatherhood  itself.  "This  is  our  faith," 
he  declares,  "we  cannot  prove  it  true  beyond 
doubt  or  question."  "Every  thinker,"  as  he 
says  elsewhere,  "takes  his  life  in  his  hand,  the 
denier  no  less  than  the  affirmer."  x  The  only 
adequate  test  is  experience. 

A  theory  of  swimming  can  never  be  satisfactory 
even  when  it  is  clearly  the  best  among  theories,  till 
one  takes  it  into  the  water.  ...  It  is  so  with  faith. 
The  theory  of  the  Fatherhood  in  God  must  be  taken 
into  the  deep  waters;  it  must  be  tested  when  all 
God's  waves  and  billows  are  gone  over  us.2 

XII 

The  appeal  to  faith,  ratified  in  experience,  is 
conclusive  for  this  deeply  religious  yet  rational 
mind,  but  it  indicates,  nevertheless,  no  failure 

1  Immortality  and  the  New  Theodicy,  p.  24. 
8  Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,  p.  108. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  127 

to  recognize  the  necessary  and  wholesome  func- 
tion of  criticism  in  the  field  of  theology.  Yet  he 
demands  of  criticism  that  it  be  genuine.  In 
dealing  with  the  second  great  problem  in 
reality  which  he  here  confronts,  the  reality  of 
Jesus,  he  institutes  a  most  searching  critique 
of  modern  Biblical  and  historical  criticism. 
The  task  of  criticism,  as  he  sees  it,  is  twofold, 
"to  let  nothing  unreal  pass  as  real,  to  allow 
nothing  real  to  pass  as  unreal,"  perhaps  the 
most  penetrating  and  succinct  definition  of 
criticism  ever  given.1  The  first  part  of  this  task 
he  concedes  has  been  well  fulfilled  by  the  modern 
New  Testament  critic,  but  in  the  second  half 
of  his  task  he  has  failed.  What  is  needed  to-day, 
in  the  judgment  of  Dr.  Gordon,  is  a  criticism 
of  criticism.  The  kind  of  criticism  that  dims  the 
personality  of  Jesus  to  shadow  and  myth,  or 
that  "reduces  criticism  of  great  documents  to 
the  play  of  a  puppy  with  a  rag"  should  be  called 
to  account,  he  asserts,  with  a  severe  challenge 
of  its  sanity.  His  word  to  the  critic  is  this: 

Son  of  man,  stand  upon  thy  feet;  let  us  have  your 
mind  upon  the  phenomena  in  question.  Separate 
your  sure  judgments,  supported  by  evidence,  from 
your  guesses;  deliver  us  from  the  greatest  of  all 

1  Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,  p.  137. 


128  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

humbugs  —  the  spirit  of  the  age  —  into  the  spirit 
of  good  sense,  careful  and  weighty  opinion,  and  if 
possible  into  the  love  of  attainable  truth.1 

Here  is  the  word  our  generation  has  been 
waiting  for,  convinced  of  the  need  and  value 
of  criticism  but  dimly  conscious  that  something 
has  been  the  trouble  with  modern  historical 
and  Biblical  criticism  and  not  knowing  exactly 
what  it  is.  Dr.  Gordon  has  put  his  finger,  kindly 
but  firmly,  on  the  weak  spot.  He,  above  all 
others,  is  the  man  to  have  done  this,  familiar 
as  he  has  always  been  with  Biblical  scholarship, 
untrammeled,  progressive  and  fearless  in  his 
whole  mental  attitude,  yet  keenly  sensitive  to 
literary  as  well  as  spiritual  values.  Upon  the 
strength  of  what  he  regards  as  genuine  historical 
criteria,  he  goes  on  to  vindicate  the  historical 
reality  of  Jesus,  claiming  for  it  such  evidence 
as  "the  impact  and  power  of  his  life  upon  the 
life  of  his  people  and  his  time,"  "the  image  of 
his  career  in  literature,"  and  the  "survival 
of  his  ideas,"  of  church  and  kingdom.  In  close, 
patient,  sympathetic  study  of  the  Gospels  one 
comes  to  meet  Jesus  face  to  face.  But  that  is 
not  the  only  place  one  meets  him.  His  face 
blends  wondrously  with  the  moral  ideal  that 
1  Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,  pp.  144,  145. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  129 

forever  haunts  the  human  heart.  To  follow 
Christ  and  to  follow  "the  Gleam"  are,  he 
conceives,  one. 

Yet  there  are  foes  and  pitfalls  in  the  pursuit  of 
the  Christ  ideal.  The  fascinating  appeal  of  the 
moral  ideal  and  the  inner  desire  for  it,  as  the 
author  depicts  them  in  the  chapter  "Man  and 
the  Moral  Ideal,"  and  the  great  inspirations 
that  come  to  the  soul  from  nature  and  the  world 
of  human  beings  and  the  presence  of  the 
Infinite  and  Eternal,  as  he  presents  them  in  the 
moving  chapter  "The  Reality  of  Inspiration," 
are  constant;  they  are  our  unfailing  resources. 
Yet  we  have  immense  obstacles  to  meet  and 
overcome  in  the  very  constitution  of  the  body 
itself,  as  related  to  the  mind.  These  are  honestly 
faced  in  the  chapter  "The  Dualism  in  Man." 
Our  nature  is  dual.  We  are  caught  and  held 
and  buffeted  by  the  diverse,  often  conflicting 
demands  of  our  own  nature.  To  adjust  the 
physical  and  the  spiritual,  ideal  and  environ- 
ment, is  a  serious,  sometimes  a  tragic  task. 

Moreover,  we  are  in  a  world  whose  life  is 
steeped  in  evil  and  whose  moral  inertia  and 
stagnation  drag  us  back.  The  brutality  of  man 
asserts  itself,  as  in  the  Great  War,  with  sinister 
and  awful  denial  of  the  good.  We  are  dazed  and 


130  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

momentarily  overwhelmed  by  such  facts  as  are 
fully  recognized  in  the  chapter  "Moral  Evil 
and  Racial  Hope."  In  view  of  these  terrible 
strains  of  faith,  the  movement  of  this  symphonic 
portrayal  of  the  inner  life  which  began  in  the 
allegro  of  joyous  confidence,  passes  into  agita- 
tion and  sorrow.  The  minor  chords  of  disturb- 
ance and  doubt  emerge;  but  not  for  long.  The 
victorious  optimism  of  the  author  reasserts 
itself.  The  dualism  with  which  we  are  perplexed 
and  retarded,  may  be,  will  be,  he  asserts, 
resolved  in  a  final  unity.  The  very  massing  and 
advance  of  evil  will  defeat  itself.  For  it  is  of  the 
very  nature  of  evil  to  be  self-destructive.  Thus 
the  discord  that  creeps  into  this  symphony  of 
life  is  overcome  and  the  music  moves  on  in 
deepening  peace  and  harmony  to  the  end.  The 
sense  of  mystery  in  which  the  whole  is  bathed 
does  not  disappear  at  the  close;  but  it  becomes 
more  and  more  mystery  in  the  New  Testament 
sense  "as  the  publication  of  hidden  wisdom, 
as  the  clear  disclosure  of  the  hitherto  concealed 
purpose  of  the  Eternal."  x 

The  closing  chapters  set  forth  "the  mystery 
of  redemption"  —  the  passion  to  transform  the 
"mere  capacity"  of  another  soul  into  a  "shining 
1  Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,  p.  305. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  131 

actuality"  —  an  impulse  which  leads  to  the 
assurance  that  "the  Being  who  gives  to  one 
soul  the  passion  to  redeem  another  soul  must 
himself  be  that  redeeming  passion  in  its  infinite 
strength."  "The  Mystery  of  the  End"  with 
which  the  volume  concludes,  resuming  as  it 
does  the  theme  of  the  author's  first  volume, 
"The  Witness  to  Immortality,"  suggests  again 
the  symphonic  nature  of  his  work  as  a  whole.  In 
that  early  volume  he  assembled  in  an  impres- 
sive manner  the  witnesses  to  immortality  from 
literature  and  philosophy  and  Christianity, 
closing  with  the  witness  from  "trust."  In  this 
later  volume  he  sums  up  the  grounds  of  faith 
in  immortality  in  this  unique  and  striking 
fashion:  "The  sea  bird  has  three  ways  of  main- 
taining life;  it  swims,  it  walks,  it  flies.  The  soul, 
the  believing  soul,  has  three  ways  of  maintain- 
ing its  faith  in  the  reality  of  life  after  death;  it 
feels,  it  reasons,  it  rises  into  the  heights  of 
Christian  experience  and  insight."  x 

XIII 

Surveying  Dr.  Gordon's  thought  as  a  whole, 
in  the  light  of  the  foregoing  review  of  it,  how 
may  we  summarize  and  appraise  his  service  to 
1  Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,  p.  322. 


132  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

the  science  of  theology?  It  is  impossible  to 
pour  so  rich  and  copious  a  vintage  into  scant 
vessels,  but  for  the  sake  of  those  who  know  his 
work  but  slightly,  let  us  venture  the  attempt. 

He  has,  in  the  first  place,  fulfilled  the  task 
commenced  by  Bushnell,  of  restoring  to  Ameri- 
can theology  the  spirit  of  comprehensiveness 
and  unity.  The  New  England  theology,  as  has 
been  already  pointed  out,  had  fallen  into 
pettiness  and  bondage  to  system.  It  required 
nineteenth-century  doubt  to  arouse  the  church 
to  the  need  of  a  wider  and  deeper  faith.  "It 
seems  as  if  there  were  but  one  sure  way," 
Dr.  Gordon  remarks,  "to  recall  the  Christian 
church  from  intellectual  pettiness.  It  appears 
as  if  that  one  way  were  to  throw  into  doubt  the 
eternal  verities."  z  Some  large  and  constructive 
body  of  coordinated  truth  was  needed  to  take 
the  place  of  the  barren  systemism  of  the  old 
theology  and  to  turn  back  the  tides  of  increasing 
skepticism.  Bushnell  outlined  such  a  theology; 
Gordon  completed  it.  His  theology,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  held  together  by  no  formal  logical 
system;  yet  it  is  unified  by  an  invisible  principle 
of  cohesion.  It  has  perspective,  harmony, 
wholeness.  In  a  word,  it  is  comprehensive.  Here 
1  Ultimate  Conceptions  of  Faith,  p.  302. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  133 

is  a  mind  that  will  neither  imprison  truth  in 
formulas  nor  let  it  lie  in  disordered  fragments. 
His  vision  of  Christianity  is  exceedingly  broad 
and  inclusive.  No  essential  doctrine  is  wanting 
in  his  large  and  inwardly  unified  theology  — 
unless  it  be  that  of  atonement,  which  is  present 
indeed,  but  hardly  in  its  due  and  ample  place. 
The  significant  thing  is  that  these  doctrines  all 
lie  in  such  natural  and  vital  kinship  to  one 
another.  Without  effort  or  compulsion  he  has 
woven  a  seamless  robe  whose  pattern  is  as 
perfect  as  its  texture. 

Characteristic  of  Dr.  Gordon's  mind  is  its 
love  of  unity.  Indeed,  if  criticism  is  to  be  made 
of  his  theology  —  and  what  theology  is  not 
open  to  criticism?  —  it  may  well  be  here.  The 
robe  of  unity  is  so  ample  as  to  cover  many 
protruding  contradictions  in  the  present  order. 
For  these  he  makes  too  little  place.  The  Pla- 
tonic cast  of  his  mind  dominates  the  Aristo- 
telian. He  is  the  Origen  of  our  age.  The  "large 
discourse  of  reason,  looking  before  and  after" 
leads  him  to  ignore  dissonant  facts.  The  sig- 
nificance of  freedom  is  too  often  lost  in  the  larger 
unity.  The  Augustinianism  which  he  thrusts 
aside  with  one  hand  he  comes  very  near  wel- 
coming back  with  the  other.  Nor  is  this  done 


134  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

wholly  unconsciously.  In  his  Ingersoll  lecture 
he  frankly  accepts  and  defends  determinism, 
declaring,  "The  question  at  issue,  so  far  as  it 
concerns  theology,  is  not  between  determinism 
,  and  indeterminism,  but  between  the  moral  and 
the  immoral  forms  of  that  sovereign  con- 
ception." 1  This  is  too  close  a  merging  of  divine 
purpose  and  divine  decree  to  win  the  full  con- 
sent of  present-day  thought.  The  modern  mind 
calls  for  the  total  dispersion  of  every  cloud  that 
obscures  the  full  fact  of  human  freedom.  That 
which  Dr.  Gordon  calls  "the  victorious  march 
of  the  divine  persuasions  in  behalf  of  the  highest 
good  of  mankind"2  is  in  full  accord  with  the 
largest  recognition  of  the  free  human  will;  but 
when  "persuasion"  passes  into  "determinism" 
its  character  is  lost.  When  the  persuading  power 
of  the  Divine  reason  and  love  is  resolved  into 
the  compelling  power  of  Will  we  are  back  again 
under  the  old  bondage.  Clearly  this  is  not  his 
intent;  yet  he  fails  to  clear  himself  from  the 
danger  of  misunderstanding  at  this  point. 

A  fuller  recognition  of  the  reality  of  freedom, 
even  though  it  caused  a  jar  in  the  movement  of 
his  thought,  or  left  the  temple  of  truth  less 

1  Immortality  and  the  New  Theodicy,  p.  98. 
3  Ibid.,  p.  loo. 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  135 

complete  —  not  less  of  Plato  but  more  of 
William  James  —  would  have  given  to  this 
superb  structure  of  thought  a  firmer  attach- 
ment to  solid  earth  with  its  obstinate  plural- 
isms and  disunities.  It  would  have  made  the 
fearful  rebellions  in  the  human  world,  perhaps 
also  in  nature  herself,  less  incomprehensible. 
Whether  this  would  involve  greater  restraint 
in  the  doctrine  of  universal  redemption  — 
leaving  less  to  God  and  more  to  man,  less  there- 
fore to  assurance  and  more  to  hope  —  is  matter 
for  difference  of  judgment. 

One  aspect  of  freedom  only  receives  full 
recognition  in  Dr.  Gordon's  theology;  "Free- 
dom is  insight  into  the  true  order  of  existence, 
susceptibility  to  that  insight,  obedience  to  it, 
and  harmonious  existence  under  it."  *  This  is, 
virtually,  Edwards'  conception  of  freedom, 
good  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  insufficient.  Free- 
dom is  more  than  insight  and  obedience;  it  is 
power  of  initiation,  of  genuine  creative  activity, 
exercised,  it  is  true,  under  the  "great  Task- 
master's eye"  and  through  power  imparted  by 
Him,  but  nevertheless  cooperative  in  the  great 
process  of  cosmic  construction.  It  is  this  very 
potentiality  in  freedom  which  makes  the 

1  Article  cited:  Harvard  Theological  Review,  p.  139. 


136  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

possibility  of  its  abuse  at  once  so  unavoidable 
and  so  full  of  potential  disaster.  This  kind  of 
freedom  is  implicit  in  all  of  Dr.  Gordon's 
attitudes  toward  human  life,  yet  it  fails  of 
full  recognition  in  his  theology,  doubtless  be- 
cause of  its  emphasis  upon  the  Godward  rather 
than  the  manward  side  of  truth.  If,  however, 
we  cannot  have  in  the  same  mind  —  as  the 
history  of  human  thought  seems  to  indicate  that 
we  cannot  —  an  equal  recognition  of  unity  and 
plurality,  God  and  freedom;  let  us  not  fail  to 
recognize  that  it  is  to  the  minds  that  have 
grasped  most  firmly  the  principle  of  unity  that 
we  are  most  indebted. 

XIV 

A  second  characteristic  of  Dr.  Gordon's 
theology  is  originality.  It  is  a  venturesome  claim 
to  make  for  a  contribution  to  so  ancient  and 
affluent  a  science  that  it  is  original.  Yet  it  may 
be  made  without  hesitation  for  this.  With  all 
its  close  continuity  with  the  past,  its  loyalty 
to  the  historic  doctrines  of  the  faith,  it  yet 
conceives  them,  and  Christianity  itself,  in  a 
fresh,  strong,  and  unique  manner.  His  thought 
has  in  its  very  texture  and  quality  the  un- 
mistakable "feel"  of  originality.  To  use  his  own 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  137 

words  in  defining  originality,  "It  advances 
upon  its  subject  in  a  great  invasion,  illuminates 
reality  like  the  sun,  and  while  it  is  itself  hard 
to  look  at,  makes  the  world  that  lives  in  its 
light  visible  and  beautiful."  x  Let  us  test  the 
quality  of  this  work  in  the  light  of  its  author's 
own  chosen  criteria  of  originality.  These  are 
three:  "Originality  means  first  of  all  the  new; 
either  absolutely  or  relatively;  in  the  second 
place,  it  signifies  greater  depth  in  the  appre- 
hension of  the  old  and  the  putting  of  the  old 
thus  apprehended  in  new  relations;  finally,  it 
stands  for  immediate  contact  with  reality." 
Unconsciously  and  therefore  the  more  con- 
clusively, these  words  define  the  characteristics 
which  stamp  the  work  of  their  writer.  It  is  new, 
relatively  at  least;  it  has  depth  in  apprehending 
and  freshness  in  restating  the  old;  and  it  gives 
clear  evidence  of  immediate  contact  with 
reality. 

xv 

The  third  and  most  outstanding  character- 
istic of  Dr.  Gordon's  theology  is  its  ennobling 
quality.  It  restores  beauty,  imagination,  feeling, 
to  theology.  How  largely  these  had  been  lost 

'"Things  Worth  While  in  Theology,"  Harvard  Theological 
Review,  vol.  Ill,  no.  4,  p.  382. 


138  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

to  "the  queen  of  the  sciences"  especially  in 
America,  one  has  but  to  look  into  one  of  the 
typical  treatises  of  the  New  England  school  to 
discover.  Edwards,  despite  the  rigorism  of  his 
Calvinism,  had  a  certain  chaste  and  mystic 
love  of  beauty  which  steals  through  his  somber 
pages  like  the  perfume  of  blossoms  in  the  desert. 
Hopkins,  with  all  his  heavy  movement,  is  not 
oblivious  to  the  inner  light  which  cannot  shine 
save  in  beauty.  N.  W.  Taylor's  "Moral  Govern- 
ment of  God  "  is  suffused  by  a  certain  grandeur 
of  inborn  eloquence;  but  for  the  most  part 
American  theology  shunned  the  beautiful  and 
ignored  every  impulse  of  feeling  and  imagina- 
tion, as  Bunyan's  "Pilgrim"  turned  away 
from  the  wares  of  Vanity  Fair. 

The  author  of  "The  Christ  of  To-day," 
"The  New  Epoch  for  Faith,"  and  all  these 
other  glowing  volumes  has  rededicated  imagina- 
tion to  the  service  of  theology,  claimed  for 
sentiment  a  place  near  the  throne  of  intellect 
and  made  all  his  productions  conform  to  the 
lofty  and  holy  behests  of  literary  art.  It  is  a 
high  achievement  and  worthy  of  note.  Bushnell 
and  Beecher  uttered  their  prophetic  messages 
with  a  native  force  and  freedom  such  as  often 
rose  to  the  highest  eloquence;  but  neither  was 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  139 

a  student  of  literary  art.  Munger  showed  how 
a  sermon  can  be  made  a  piece  of  pure  and 
appropriate  literature,  but  his  literary  output 
was  not  large.  It  remained  for  Gordon  to  pro- 
duce a  sustained  series  of  volumes  which  can- 
not fail  to  take  high  rank  in  American  literature; 
and  this  without  ceasing  to  be  distinctively  the- 
ological, but  rather  gaining  thereby,  both  as 
literature  and  as  theology.  His  sermons  are,  as 
Professor  George  H.  Palmer  has  called  them, 
"great  lyrics."  *  The  theological  treatises  fall 
little  short  of  being  great  epics.  Consonant  with 
their  lofty  themes,  they  move  with  an  almost 
Miltonic  music  and  stateliness.  Burdened  as 
is  the  thought  at  times  with  an  intense  and 
often  necessarily  intricate  interplay,  that  frees 
itself  from  its  barriers  in  swift  and  leaping 
ardor  —  producing  what  Bliss  Perry  has  termed 
the  "athletic  quality  of  his  style"2  —  when 
these  are  overcome  it  sweeps  like  a  great  river 
from  a  tumultuous  canon  into  a  fruitful  plain 
and  flows  with  the  movement  of  a  stately  poem 
to  the  sea  of  its  large  and  beneficent  ends.3  It  is 

1  Twenty-fifth  Anniversary  Volume,  p.  121. 

9  "His  own  [i.e.,  Dr.  Gordon's]  style,  so  clean-cut,  so  athletic, 
so  rich  with  humor  and  pathos,  has  been  formed  by  reverent 
intimacy  with  the  masters  of  thought  and  verse."  Ibid.,  p.  115. 

*  See  e.g.,  Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,  p.  311. 


140  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

no  every-day  task  to  keep  thought  at  the  level 
of  these  high  themes  without  straining  the 
bounds  of  expression.  The  tides  of  his  thought  — 
to  change  the  figure  —  often  dash  impulsively 
against  the  rocky  headlands  of  reason  and 
sanity  but  never  break  through;  they  sweep  far 
up  upon  the  fair  fields  of  sentiment  and  affec- 
tion but  never  inundate  them.  The  discipline  of 
true  ethic  and  true  art  has  taught  him  when  to 
say,  "Hitherto  shalt  thou  come,  but  no  further: 
and  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed." 
Abundance  is  here  but  no  extravagance,  luxuri- 
ance but  no  exaggeration.  The  tenderness  of 
his  favorite  poet,  Burns,  invests  his  pages,  but 
restrained  by  the  ethical  rigor  of  a  mind  that 
never  parts  company  with  Puritan  sobriety. 

Not  only  is  literary  art  inwrought  into  all 
his  own  noble  craftsmanship,  literature  con- 
stantly lends  its  treasures  to  enrich  and  further 
his  thought.  He  continues  that  fruitful  alliance 
of  literature  and  theology  which  Dr.  Munger 
initiated.  There  is  constant  and  abundant 
evidence,  upon  almost  every  page,  of  familiarity 
not  only  with  historical  theology  and  philos- 
ophy but  also  with  the  best  literature,  espe- 
cially the  great  poetry  of  the  ages.  Through  his 
Lenten  lectures  he  has  become  a  spiritual 


GEORGE  A.  GORDON  141 

interpreter  of  the  great  Christian  poets  in  a 
way  which  the  academic  teacher  of  literature 
can  hardly  hope  to  equal.1 

Yet  his  literary  art  is  always  subordinate  to 
his  great  purposes,  rational,  ethical,  and  reli- 
gious. It  is  an  instrument  of  his  strong  and 
unflagging  optimism, —  an  optimism  which 
shines  out  resplendent  in  the  first  chapter  of 
his  first  publication,2  pervades  his  whole  work, 
and  glows  richly  in  the  afternoon  light  of 
"Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery."  His  is  no 
weak  and  near-sighted  optimism,  but  one  that 
has  looked  into  the  darkest  aspects  of  the 
Infinite  Mystery  and  is  not  dismayed.  It  is 
much  more  than  a  "cheerful  optimism";  it  is 
reverent,  rational,  sustaining. 

It  is  for  these  reasons  that  I  have  chosen  the 
word  ennobling  as  peculiarly  expressive  of  the 
thought  of  this  truly  Christian  theologian.  He 
touches  no  theme,  no  doctrine,  no  aspect  of  life, 
that  he  does  not  ennoble.  There  is  the  same  true 
elevation  of  mind  in  a  page  of  his  as  in  a  page 
of  Martineau,  or  Carlyle,  or  of  Milton  himself. 

1  For  example,  instances  of  his  work  as  a  literary  critic  are  to 
be  found  in  articles  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  upon  two  of  his 
favorite  authors,  Milton  and  Shakespeare. 

*For  example,  "Life  in  our  time  is  founded  upon  optimism," 
etc.;  The  Witness  to  Immortality ',  p.  6. 


142  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Everything  is  lifted  up  and  set  in  the  light  of 
the  Eternal.  It  is  in  this  transcendent  realm 
that  all  experience  takes  its  due  place  in  his 
thought  and  purpose  —  all  truth  and  beauty, 
all  pain  and  evil,  all  aspiration  and  endeavor, 
life  itself.  Eternity  is  set  in  the  heart  of  his 
thinking. 

"We  are  all  in  the  presence  of  the  Infinite 
Mystery  of  Godliness;  our  increasing  sense  of 
this  Reality  means  the  increasing  life  of  hu- 
manity; yet  this  life  must  ever  be  in  the  awe 
of  the  uncomprehended  Fulness  of  truth  and 
love." ' 

1  Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mystery,  p.  22. 


CHAPTER  IV 
WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER 


WILLIAM  JEWETT  TUCKER 

1839.  Born  in  Griswold,  Conn.,  July  13. 

1840.  Parents  removed  to  Norwich,  Conn. 
1847.    Death  of  his  mother,  Sarah  White  Lester. 

1847.  Went  to  live  with  Rev.  William  R.  Jewett,  an  uncle, 

in  Plymouth,  N.H. 

1857.  Entered  Dartmouth  College. 

1861.  Graduated  from  Dartmouth  College. 

1862-63.  Taught  in  High  School,  Columbus,  Ohio. 

1863.  Entered  Andover  Theological  Seminary. 

1864.  Served  in  the  United  States  Christian  Commission. 
1866.  Graduated  from  Andover  Seminary. 

1866.  Made   a  survey  of   religious  conditions  in  south- 

western Missouri  and  southeastern  Kansas. 

1867.  Ordained  to  the  ministry  as  pastor  of  Franklin  Street 

Church,  Manchester,  N.H.,  January  24. 

1870.    Married  Charlotte  H.  Rogers  of  Plymouth,  N.H. 

1875.     Installed  as  pastor  of  the  Madison  Square  Presbyte- 
rian Church,  New  York,  May  12. 

1875.    Degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  conferred  by  Dart- 
mouth College;  University  of  Vermont,  1904. 
1878-1909.    Trustee  of  Dartmouth  College. 

1879.  Accepted  a  call  to  the  chair  of  Homiletics  in  Andover 

Theological  Seminary. 

1880.  Installed  as  Bartlet  Professor  of  Sacred  Rhetoric 

and  Lecturer  in  Pastoral   Theology  in  Andover 
Theological  Seminary. 
1882.    Mrs.  Tucker  died. 

1884-93.    Joint  founder  and  editor  of  The  Andover  Review. 
1886-92.    One  of  the  five  defendants  in  the  Andover  HeresyTrial. 
1887.    Married  Charlotte,  daughter  of   Rev.    Henry   T. 

Cheever  of  Worcester,  Mass. 

1891.    Established   Andover  (now    South   End)    House, 
Boston. 

1891.  Lecturer  on  Homiletics,  Harvard  Divinity  School. 

1892.  Phi  Beta  Kappa  orator,  Harvard  University. 

1893.  Accepted  a  call  to  presidency  of  Dartmouth  College, 

reconsidering  declination  of  the  previous  year. 

1894.  Lowell  Institute  lecturer. 

1895-97.    Andover  Theological  Seminary    lecturer  on  Stone 

Foundation. 

.  1898.    Lyman  Beecher  lecturer,  Yale  University. 
1902.    Morse  Foundation  lecturer,  Union  Seminary. 

1906.  Earl  lecturer,  Pacific  School  of  Religion,  Berkeley, 

Cal. 

1907.  Offered  resignation  of  presidency  of  Dartmouth. 
1909.    Resignation  accepted. 

1911.    Made  President  Emeritus, 


CHAPTER  IV 
WILLIAM  J.   TUCKER 

THE    NEW   THEOLOGY   IN   ACTION 

MUCH  of  the  interest  and  carrying  power  of  the 
New  Theology  movement  lay  in  its  personnel, 
which  was  strikingly  varied,  forceful,  attrac- 
tive. Its  representatives  have  possessed  in 
an  unusual  degree  individuality,  force,  influ- 
ence. 

In  no  instance  has  the  personal  equation 
counted  for  more  than  in  that  of  President 
Tucker.  Something  in  William  Jewett  Tucker 
recalls  the  sentence  with  which  Emerson 
opens  his  essay  on  Character:  "I  have  read 
that  those  who  listened  to  Lord  Chatham  felt 
that  there  was  something  finer  in  the  man  than 
anything  which  he  said."  Dr.  Tucker  has  said 
exceedingly  fine  things  and  said  them  ex- 
ceedingly finely.  Indeed,  that  is  one  of  his  most 
characteristic  habits.  Yet  there  is  something 
in  the  man  still  finer.  It  is  indefinable,  or  it 
would  not  be  of  so  great  consequence.  "Per- 
sonality" is  the  word  to  which  we  retreat  when 


146  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

we  can  get  no  further  with  our  halting  analyses 
and  descriptions.  It  must  serve  here. 

Whatever  it  may  be,  this  quality  pervades 
his  thinking,  giving  it  "the  purple"  of  which 
Stevenson  speaks;  his  speech,  clothing  it  in  the 
fine  raiment  of  an  ordered  mind;  all  his  contacts 
and  activities.  He  belongs,  indeed,  to  the 
American  nobility,  the  nobility  of  true  de- 
mocracy, holding  its  title  from  no  hand  of 
royalty  but  that  of  self-conquest,  guaranteed 
by  no  heritage  save  that  of  unstained  native 
blood.  The  one  thing  that  this  man  never  has 
been,  nor  can  be,  is  —  commonplace.  High- 
-mindedness  invests  him.  His  whole  purpose  and 
influence  have  been  to  lift  life,  in  all  of  its 
activities,  out  of  the  mean  and  commonplace 
into  nobility  and  worth.  He  will  not  have  men, 
or  deeds,  drop  into  the  slough  of  sordidness. 
"The  great  danger  which  besets  us  in  our  esti- 
mation of  human  nature  is  that  of  indifference 
or  contempt,"  he  once  said,  and  against  that  dan- 
ger he  has  ever  been  on  guard  and  ever  putting 
others  on  guard. 


Dr.  Tucker  is  a  true  New  Englander,   his 
grandfather,  "Squire  Tucker,"  being  the  fifth 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  147 

in  descent  from  Robert  Tucker  who  came  to 
Weymouth,  Mass.,  from  England  in  1635.  ^s 
boyhood  embraced  the  double  fascination  of 
the  Connecticut  coast,  where  he  spent  his  early 
years  in  the  old  town  of  Norwich,  and  of  the 
White  Mountains,  whither  he  went  at  the  age 
of  nine  to  live  with  his  uncle,  the  Rev.  William 
R.  Jewett,  in  the  town  of  Plymouth,  N.H. 
Dartmouth  College  naturally  became  his  Alma 
Mater  and  well  did  she  minister  to  him  in 
Utterisque  humanis  rebus.  At  the  time  of  his 
graduation  his  purpose  was  to  enter  the  legal 
profession,  for  which  he  had  both  aptitude  and 
talent;  but  serious  reflection  upon  the  largest 
opportunity  for  personal  service  led  him  to 
turn  toward  the  ministry  and  to  the  doors  of 
venerable  Andover  Seminary.  Here  he  found 
intellectual  stimulus  and  spiritual  culture  in 
the  classrooms  of  Park  and  Phelps  and  Stowe. 
But  the  touch  which  awoke  him  to  the  deeper 
realities  of  Christian  faith  came  from  that 
dauntless  victor  over  doubt  and  dismay,  who 
being  dead  yet  spake  to  the  young  men  of  his 
day  and  of  ours  —  Frederick  Robertson.  Re- 
flecting upon  the  influence  of  Robertson  upon 
him,  Dr.  Tucker  has  written:  "His  fundamental 
conception  of  Christianity  as  revealing  what  is 


148  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

otherwise  obscure,  uncertain,  perhaps  deniable, 
namely  the  fact  of  human  sonship,  every  man 
by  nature  a  son  of  God,  has  been  the  conception 
which  has  most  influenced  me  in  my  work  in 
the  pulpit  and  among  men.  It  has  given  me  a 
steady  working  faith  in  human  nature.  I  have 
not  been  afraid  of  what  may  have  seemed  to 
others  to  be  an  over  estimation  of  men." 

The  first  pastorate  of  Mr.  Tucker  was  that 
of  the  Franklin  Street  Church  of  Manchester, 
N.H.,  where  his  spiritual  initiative,  preaching 
power,  and  high  devotion  to  his  task  made  his 
ministry  a  notable  one,  and  where  he  established 
a  bond  of  union  with  the  State  of  New  Hamp- 
shire which  was  later  to  be  renewed  with  still 
larger  results.  After  a  pastorate  of  seven 
years  in  Manchester  he  accepted  a  call  to  the 
Madison  Square  Presbyterian  Church,  New 
York,  where  he  met  a  difficult  task  with  courage 
and  ability. 

Fourteen  years  after  his  graduation  he  was 
recalled  to  Andover  Seminary  as  professor  of 
Homiletics  (Sacred  Rhetoric)  and  Pastoral 
Theology.  Here  he  speedily  became  a  potent 
factor  in  the  conduct  and  development  of  the 
institution,  in  the  guidance  of  the  students,  and 
in  the  religious  and  educational  life  of  New 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  149 

England.  As  teacher  he  was  intensely  alert, 
attractive,  suggestive;  as  preacher  he  was 
vibrant,  high-minded,  challenging;  as  a  molder 
of  thought  he  was  reverent,  intrepid,  progres- 
sive. He  went  through  the  Andover  controversy 
with  unflagging  faith  in  the  cause  and  emerged 
from  it  unscathed,  a  recognized  leader  in  the 
progressive  movement  in  the  Pilgrim  churches 
and  beyond.  Among  the  members  of  the  Ando- 
ver faculty  he,  more  than  any  other,  interpreted 
the  real  Andover  movement  to  the  churches. 
In  a  notable  sermon  before  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  Congregational  churches  of  Massachu- 
setts, June  25,  1882,  he  did  much  to  correct  the 
current  misunderstandings  of  Andover  theology 
and  to  bring  the  real  seriousness  and  signifi- 
cance of  the  movement  home  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  constituency  of  the  Seminary. 
There  was  no  man  whose  vision  seemed  to 
his  students  to  penetrate  so  discerningly  into 
the  modern  movement  of  life  and  thought  in 
its  relation  to  Christianity  and  the  church  as 
that  of  Professor  Tucker.  In  his  classroom,  his 
sermons,  his  public  addresses,  his  writings,  he 
was  without  an  equal  in  seizing  upon  the  aspects 
of  modern  life  which  call  for  readjustment  in 
the  thought  and  activity  of  the  church,  and 


150  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

which  open  into  large  opportunity.  In  this  dual 
service  to  the  seminary  and  the  church  he  con- 
tinued for  fourteen  years  until  at  length  the 
i  educational  world  laid  a  constraining  hand 
upon  him  and  he  became  president  of  Dart- 
mouth College,  in  which  office  he  remained 
until  his  retirement  as  president  emeritus  in 
1911.  This  larger  responsibility,  however,  by 
no  means  severed  his  interest  from  either 
church  administration  or  theology. 

ii 

Perhaps  the  chief  service  which  Dr.  Tucker 
has  done  for  those  who  have  come  witfiin  his 
influence  has  been  to  give  them  courage.  It 
would  not  be  true  to  characterize  the  period  in 
which  he  has  lived  and  worked  as  one  of  un- 
faith.  But  it  has  had  its  deep  unrest,  its  mood 
of  world-weariness,  its  perplexity  and  ex- 
haustion in  face  of  problems  more  numerous,  if 
i  not  more  urgent,  than  any  previous  period  has 
1  had  to  meet.  In  the  midst  of  these,  and  sensitive 
to  them,  he  has  shown  an  indomitable  courage, 
having  in  it  a  certain  exhilarating  quality,  like 
that  wine  of  the  spirit  wherein  is  no  excess.  In 
the  midst  of  a  perplexed  and  hard-pressed  if  not 
a  crooked  and  perverse  generation  he  has  stood 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  151 

as  a  Puritan  of  the  new  age,  serious  but  not 
somber,  reliant  but  not  combative,  challenging 
his  fellows  to  face  the  difficulties  and  redeem  the 
opportunities  of  the  present  era  in  the  spirit  in 
which  the  fathers  met  their  tasks.  "I  put  you 
on  your  guard,"  are  his  ringing  words,  "against 
the  superficial  and  faithless  interpretation  of 
your  own  times."  x 

It  is  this  communicative  courage,  this  mili- 
tant faith,  which  drew  young  men  to  him  and 
made  him  steadily  and  increasingly  their 
leader  and  friend.  He  appealed  to  their  daring, 
their  love  of  high  adventure.  The  words  of 
Samuel  J.  Mills  were  often  on  his  lips,  "We  can 
if  we  will."  This  power  to  attract  young  men 
doubtless  made  itself  felt  in  his  pastorates  but 
it  first  showed  itself  in  full  force  at  Andover. 
The  seminary  students  felt  it  keenly.  There 
was  about  him  a  certain  vibrancy,  a  spiritual 
athleticism,  not  so  much  a  halo  or  an  aura  as 
an  electric  magnetism,  which  drew  them  to 
him  and  clothed  him  with  a  certain  fascination 
of  authoritative  leadership. 

This  identification  of  himself  with  the  young 
man's  cause  and  viewpoint  came  out  with  pe- 
culiar intensity  in  the  heat  of  the  Andover- 
1  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  XVI,  no.  90,  p.  461. 


152  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

American  Board  controversy.  In  this  crisis  he 
became  in  a  special  manner  the  defender  and 
spokesman  of  the  students  who  were  rejected 
by  the  Board  as  unfit  candidates  for  missionary 
service  because  they  would  not  subscribe  to 
"the  dogma  of  a  restricted  opportunity."  All 
that  was  chivalrous  and  liberty-loving  within 
him  sprang  into  action  at  this  attack  upon  the 
freedom  and  hospitality  of  Christian  faith.  The 
sermon  entitled  "The  Open  Door  which  None 
can  Shut,"  which  he  preached  in  Andover 
Chapel,  October  16,  1887,  after  the  meeting  of 
the  American  Board  at  Springfield  (published 
the  following  day  in  the  "Boston  Daily  Adver- 
tiser" and  later  in  "The  Andover  Review")  was 
full  of  the  fire  of  indignation,  tempered  by  a 
fine  control.  It  was  no  partisan  championship  of 
a  suppressed  cause,  but  a  searching  appeal  to 
meet  the  emergency  with  magnanimity  and 
candor,  —  as  appears  in  such  words  as  these : 

Do  not  temporize.  Do  not  prevaricate.  Do  not 
magnify  or  belittle  any  truth  of  which  you  are  put 
in  trust.  Let  no  man  compel  you  to  say  more  than 
you  believe;  let  no  man  compel  you  to  say  less  than 
you  believe.  Let  your  yea  be  yea  and  your  nay,  nay; 
for  in  times  of  distress  and  excitement  and  con- 
tention, what  is  more  than  these  cometh  of  evil.1 

1  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  VIII,  no.  47,  p.  510. 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  153 

The  ties  by  which  Professor  Tucker  bound 
young  men  to  him  at  Andover,  the  ambitions 
which  he  kindled,  the  uplift  of  his  presence,  the 
radiance  of  his  ideals,  the  power  of  his  in- 
fluence, left  a  deep  impression  upon  his  students. 
Whenever  his  erect  form  entered  chapel  or  class- 
room it  brought  a  stir  of  reinvigoration.  When  a 
student  went  across  the  ancient,  elm-embowered 
campus  to  his  home  to  talk  with  him  about  his 
plans  for  the  future,  he  invariably  came  away 
with  a  certain  glow  of  elation  as  if  new  and 
unsuspected  resources  of  power  and  usefulness 
had  been  discovered  to  himself.  If  this  lover  of 
young  men  overestimated  some  of  his  students, 
he  at  least  succeeded  in  calling  them  to  higher 
and  more  potent  visions  of  what  they  could  do 
for  humanity  and  the  determination  to  carry 
them  into  realization. 

in 

The  courage  which  President  Tucker  has 
infused  into  his  generation  —  the  high  purpose 
and  resolution  —  is  the  more  effectual  because 
accompanied  by  another  quality  which  we  have 
already  anticipated,  —  Christian  statesman- 
ship. He  has  been  one  of  the  spiritual  states- 
men of  his  time.  By  spiritual  statesmanship  I 


154   PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

mean  something  akin  to  prophecy  yet  more 
definite  and  effective,  discernment  of  the 
leading  issues  that  confront  men  of  the  kingdom 
and  of  the  way  in  which  they  are  to  be  met. 
While  other  men  have  been  more  conspicuous 
in  ecclesiastical  and  educational  leadership  and 
in  popular  following,  few  have  equaled  him 
in  clear  and  far-sighted  sagacity.  His  gift  of 
statesmanship,  developed  by  constant  exercise, 
has  shown  itself,  not  in  one  direction  only,  but 
in  many.  Upon  whatever  front  he  has  served  — 
and  he  has  served  on  not  a  few  —  he  has  had 
the  faculty  to  detect  the  strategic  points  of 
attack  and  defense. 

In  his  association  with  the  theological  renas- 
cence, which  most  concerns  us  here,  while  he 
was  in  no  sense  a  technical  theologian,  he  per- 
ceived with  rare  insight  and  wisdom  the  vital 
principles  of  the  new  movement  and  the  doc- 
trines which  had  in  them  the  promise  and 
potency  of  the  future. 

At  the  center  of  the  movement  he  saw,  as 
did  others  about  him  who  were  most  sensitive 
to  the  new  conception  of  Christianity,  the  re- 
discovered consciousness  of  Christ.  "The  rev- 
elation of  God  in  Christ  is  rectifying  all  other 
and  minor  beliefs  and  bringing  them  into 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  155 

harmony  with  this  which  is  central  and 
supreme."  This  revaluation  of  Christ  he  con- 
strued as  "the  interpretation  of  a  person,  not 
the  solution  of  a  problem."  Yet  he  did  not 
hesitate  before  its  metaphysical  implications: 
"The  revealer  of  God  the  Father  is  naturally 
God  the  Son.  The  revelation  must  hold  the 
quality  and  substance  of  the  life  revealed." 

Without  doubt  the  trend  of  modern  thought  and 
faith  is  toward  the  more  perfect  identification  of 
Christ  with  humanity.  We  cannot  overestimate  the 
advantage  to  Christianity  of  this  tendency.  The 
world  must  know  and  feel  the  humanity  of  Jesus. 
But  it  makes  the  greatest  difference  in  result  whether 
the  ground  of  the  common  humanity  is  in  him  or  in 
us.  To  borrow  the  expressive  language  of  Paul,  was 
he  "created"  in  us?  Or  are  we  "created"  in  him? 
Grant  the  right  of  the  affirmation  that  "there  is 
no  difference  in  kind  between  the  divine  and  the 
human";  allow  the  interchange  of  terms  so  that  one 
may  speak  of  the  humanity  of  God  and  the  divinity 
of  man;  appropriate  the  motive  which  lies  in  these 
attempts  to  bring  God  and  man  together  and  thus 
to  explain  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ,  it  is  still 
a  matter  of  infinite  concern  whether  his  home  is  in 
the  higher  or  the  lower  regions  of  divinity.  After 
all,  very  little  is  gained  by  the  transfer  of  terms. 
Humanity  is  in  no  way  satisfied  with  its  degree  of 
divinity.  We  are  still  as  anxious  as  ever  to  rise 
above  ourselves  and  in  this  anxiety  we  want  to 
know  concerning  our  great  helper  whether  He  has 
in  himself  anything  more  than  the  possible  increase 


156  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

of  a  common  humanity.  What  is  his  power  to  lift 
and  how  long  may  it  last?  Shall  we  ever  reach  his 
level,  become  as  divine  as  He,  or  does  he  have  part 
in  the  absolute  and  infinite  ?  This  question  may  seem 
remote  in  result  but  it  is  everything  in  principle. 
The  immanence  of  Christ  has  its  present  meaning 
and  value  because  of  his  transcendence. 

These  passages,  taken  from  an  editorial  by 
him  in  "The  Andover  Review"  of  January, 
1893,  entitled  "The  Satisfaction  of  Humanity 
in  Jesus  Christ,"  x  are  well  supplemented  by 
the  following  extracts  from  a  sermon  preached 
in  the  First  Congregational  Church  of  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  in  1891,  entitled  "Life  in 
Himself":2 

I  would  deny  no  essential  likeness  of  the  human 
to  the  divine;  but  if  we  carry  the  likeness  to  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  divine  humanity,  we  are  not  to  overlook 
the  fact  that  a  difference  in  degree  may  amount  to  a 
difference  in  kind.  I  take  a  drop  out  of  the  ocean. 
The  drop  is  like  the  ocean,  but  it  is  swayed  by  no 
tides,  it  bears  no  ships  on  its  bosom,  it  does  not 
unite  continents.  I  take  a  grain  of  earth  from  a 
mountain.  The  grain  is  like  the  mountain  but  I  can 
dig  no  quarries  out  of  its  bowels,  I  can  cut  no  forests 
on  its  slopes,  I  do  not  see  it  lifting  its  summit  to  the 
first  light  of  day.  Man  may  be  like  God,  but  I  locate 
Jesus  not  in  the  drop  or  the  grain,  but  in  the  ocean 

1  Republished  as  a  chapter  of  "The  Divinity  of  Christ,"  by 
the  editors  of  The  Review. 

"Published  in  The  Andover  Review,  February,  1892. 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  157 

and  the  mountain*  *  .  .  I  grant  the  mystery  of  the 
incarnation,  but  I  prefer  mystery  to  insufficiency  in 
my  faith. 

At  another  point  Professor  Tucker  saw  very 
clearly  the  true  gains  accruing  to  theology 
from  the  newer  point  of  view,  i.e.,  those  con- 
tributed by  Biblical  criticism.  This  appears  in 
an  address  given  by  him  at  the  opening  of  An- 
dover  Seminary,  September  16,  1891,  en- 
titled "The  Authority  of  the  Pulpit  in  a 
Time  of  Critical  Research  and  Social  Con- 
fusion." x  In  this  notable  address,  after  recog- 
nizing to  the  full  the  authority  that  grounds  in 
religious  experience  and  in  the  testimony  of  the 
church,  he  goes  on  to  inquire  into  the  real  nature 
of  a  third  source  of  authority,  the  Bible,  and 
finds  it,  not  in  infallibility,  but  in  life  and  in 
the  manifest  presence  of  God  in  its  pages. 

If  the  Reformation  had  given  us  as  its  first  and 
chief  result  an  infallible  Bible,  it  would  never  have 
delivered  us  from  an  infallible  church.  .  .  .  The  power 
of  the  reformation  did  not  consist  in  confronting  one 
kind  of  infallibility  with  another  but  in  confronting 
infallibility  with  life.2 

Historical  criticism,  as  he  perceived,  is  the 
very  thing  that  helps  most  to  realize  both  the 

1  See  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  XVI,  p.  384. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  389. 


158  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

interior  values  of  the  Bible  and  the  reality  of 
the  Christ  whom  it  presents.  "It  has  put 
reality  in  place  of  infallibility  in  the  chief  seat 
of  authority."1  "Historical  criticism  has  done 
away  with  the  dilemma,  terrible  to  many 
minds  —  either  the  Bible  word  for  word, 
from  cover  to  cover,  or  no  Bible  at  all."  2  The 
spiritual  result  of  historical  criticism  is  "that 
eagerness  of  delight  with  which  our  generation 
rejoices  in  the  recovered  presence  of  the 
Christ  of  the  Gospels."  3 


IV 

Perhaps  the  largest  and  most  statesmanly 
contribution  which  Professor  Tucker  has  made 
to  the  newer  religious  thought  is  the  principle, 
of  which  he  was  one  of  the  foremost  of  the 
earlier  heralds  in  this  country,  of  the  spiritual 
meaning  and  value  of  the  unity  of  humanity. 
This  is  not  ""the  lame  asTlie  "Social  Gospel," 
though  it  underlies  it  and  prepared  the  way  for 
it.  The  chief  utterance  through  which  he  called 
attention  to  this  slowly  emerging  truth  was  his 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration  at  Harvard  Univer- 
sity in  1892,  "The  New  Movement  in  Human- 

1  See  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  XVI,  p.  390. 
9  Ibid.,  p.  391.  3  Ibid.,  p.  391. 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  159 

ity,  from  Liberty  to  Unity."  T  As  an  interpre- 
tation of  the  deeper  inarticulate  outreach  of 
the  mind  of  his  time  toward  the  higher  life, 
this  address  was  one  of  the  most  discerning  in 
the  history  of  American  academic  life.  It  is 
worthy  of  that  high  succession  which  includes 
Emerson's  address,  "The  American  Scholar." 

The  address  was  not  primarily  religious,  much 
less  theological,  yet  indefinably  and  in  spirit 
it  was  both  —  as  well  as  closely  allied  to 
educational  and  social  advance.  It  was  spoken 
at  the  moment  when  the  force  of  individualism, 
which  culminated  in  Emerson  and  Thoreau, 
had  spent  itself,  or  rather  had  reached  the 
sense  of  need  of  something  larger  to  supplement 
its  deficiency,  and  when  the  limitation  of  the 
power  of  mere  liberty  to  recreate  society  was 
beginning  to  be  poignantly  felt.  Without  in 
any  wise  minimizing  the  place  and  value  of 
these  essentials  of  civilization,  individualism 
and  liberty,  Dr.  Tucker  unfolded  the  wealth 
of  moral  and  spiritual  value  in  the  deepening 
sense  of  unity  which  was  beginning  to  pervade 
the  life  and  thought  of  the  later  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Perhaps  the  most  sug- 

1  Originally  published  in  The  Harvard  Graduates'  Magazine,  later 
in  pamphlet  form  and  reprinted  in  The  New  Reservation  of  Time* 


160  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

gestive  part  of  the  address  is  that  in  which  the 
speaker  pointed  out  the  values  of  the  new  sense 
of  unity  to  personality  in  such  words  as  these : 

I  must  continue  to  resist  with  all  my  nature  the 
forces  from  without  which  are  seeking  to  enslave  me, 
be  they  many,  be  they  great,  be  they  of  men,  or  of 
institutions  or  of  philosophies  and  beliefs;  but  the 
personal  forces  which  are  seeking  to  enter  in  and 
become  a  part  of  my  being,  entering  through  in- 
heritance, through  friendship,  through  the  mutual 
toil  and  struggle  and  mystery  and  faith,  through 
the  thousand  ways  in  which  I  am  open  to  the  com- 
mon humanity,  these  I  must  learn  to  recognize  and 
understand,  to  treat  with  a  wise  discrimination  and 
with  a  generous  hospitality,  else  I  shall  certainly 
be  less  than  I  might  be;  my  liberty  will  bring  me 
only  the  narrowness  of  my  own  self;  my  individual- 
ism will  end  in  isolation*1 

The  significance  of  the  movement  toward 
unity  to  Christianity  —  which  originally 
"struck  the  note  of  universality"  but  has  had 
to  struggle  through  its  entire  history  "to 
maintain  its  original  scope"  —  is  shown  to  be 
of  the  greatest  consequence,  especially  in 
furthering  the  tendency  toward  cooperation 2 

1  The  New  Reservation  of  Time,  Appendix,  p.  200. 

a  Ibid.,  p.  26.  The  course  in  "  Social  Economics "  which 
Professor  Tucker  conducted  in  The  Andover  Review,  as  a  kind  of 
extension  course,  helped  greatly  to  open  the  connection  between 
sociology  and  religion  which  has  since  become  so  wide  a  channel 
of  expansion  to  both. 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  161 

and  in  the  recognition  of  a  common  Christianity 
transcending  all  the  "partialisms"  which  have 
hindered  its  progress.  The  origin  and  spring  of 
the  impulse  toward  unity  Dr.  Tucker  found  in 
"the  sense  of  the  organic  in  humanity,"  a 
bond  which,  as  he  truly  said,  "is  far  more  than 
the  knowledge  of  social  rights  and  duties"  and 
"in  a  very  true  sense  lies  below  the  ethical" 
and  which  he  traced  to  that  natural  basis  in 
the  physical,  which  science  had  so  lately  un- 
covered. In  locating  our  "organic  union"  in 
the  possession  of  a  common  natural  organism, 
rather  than  in  the  sharing  of  a  common  divine 
Life,  or  Reason  —  where  Christian  philosophy 
has  commonly  placed  it  —  he  chose  the  lesser 
rather  than  the  greater  bond  of  union,  in 
harmony  with  the  prevalent  emphasis,  though 
he  would  not  have  denied  that  it  lies  in  both 
realms. 

The  trend  away  from  the  Individualism  of 
the  older  orthodoxy  toward  the  larger  principle 
of  spiritual  unity,  which  riiis  address  did  so 
much  to  further,  has  been  a  powerful  factor  in 
shaping  religious  thought  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years.  Through  the  influence  of  Dr.  Tucker 
and  others,  many  of  whom  caught  their  inspira- 
tion from  him,  the  emphasis  upon  human 


162  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

solidarity  as  a  spiritual  reality  became  an  in- 
creasingly marked  characteristic  of  the  New 
Theology. 

The  power  to  seize  upon  essential  issues, 
which  Professor  Tucker  manifested  in  his 
religious  thinking,  he  brought  to  bear  also  in 
all  his  ideas  and  plans  for  the  advancement 
of  the  life  and  work  of  the  church.  He  was 
among  the  first  to  see  how  essential  it  is  for 
the  churches  to  lay  hold  of  the  life  offthe 
community,  especially  its  young  life,  and]  he 
was  the  originator  of  the  (not  altogether  for- 
tunate) term  "the  institutional  church,"  as 
well  as  an  earnest  promoter  of  the  movement 
itself. 

In  the  recovery  and  reconstruction  of  the 
missionary  motive  from  the  old  individualistic 
motive  of  salvation  from  hell  to  the  larger  one 
of  personal  realization  and  social  salvation  — 
the  summoning  of  nations  and  races  to  the 
higher  life  —  he  was  one  of  the  outstanding 
leaders.  In  his  presentation  of  it,  the  missionary 
enterprise  took  on  the  aspect  of  a  vast  and 
splendid  divine-human  adventure,  replete  with 
racial  as  well  as  eternal  significance,  appealing 
to  the  imagination  as  much,  or  more,  as 
scientific  discovery  or  great  economic  enterprise. 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  163 

But  in  many  respects  his  most  characteristic 
venture  was  in  behalf  of  a  new  crusade  of 
Christian  forces  into  the  wastes  of  unredeemed 
life,  which  had  been  forming,  almost  un- 
noticed, at  the  very  doors  of  the  church.  This 
took  the  form  of  college  settlement  work,  the 
introduction  of  which  in  this  country  was 
largely  due  to  him. 

The  Andover  House,  later  the  South  End 
House,  one  of  the  pioneer  college  settlements 
in  this  country,  was  founded  in  Boston  in  1891, 
chiefly  through  his  enterprise  and  effort.1  Its 
first  head,  Mr.  Robert  A.  Woods,  was  trained 
under  him  at  Andover  Seminary,  investigated 
the  work  of  Arnold  Toynbee  in  London  under 
his  supervision,  and  by  the  aid  of  his  efforts 
was  enabled  to  open  the  House.  The  South 
End  House,  by  the  wisdom  and  sympathy  and 

1  In  commenting  upon  the  earlier  attempts  to  relate  Chris- 
tianity to  the  organic  life  of  society,  Professor  Rauschenbusch,  in 
his  Christianizing  the  Social  Order,  wrote:  "So  far  as  I  know, 
Andover  Seminary  deserves  the  wreath  of  the  pioneer.  In  1879 
Professor  W.  J.  Tucker,  now  president  of  Dartmouth  College, 
annexed  a  perfunctory  lectureship  in  pastoral  theology  and  turned 
it  into  a  sociological  course.  An  outline  of  the  course  was  pub- 
lished in  The  Andover  Review  and  stimulated  other  professors 
to  undertake  a  similar  work.  The  Andover  House  at  Boston, 
1891,  was  an  outcome  of  these  impulses'*  (p.  20,  note).  This 
statement  needs  correction  in  one  particular.  Professor  Tucker 
annexed  the  sociological  course  to .  that  in  pastoral  theology, 
which  was  far  from  being  perfunctory. 


164  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

organizing  skill  of  Mr.  Woods,  has  become  the 
prototype,  in  many  ways  the  model,  of  settle- 
ment work  in  America.  If  Mr.  Woods  has  won 
the  right  to  the  title  of  the  father  of  settle- 
ment work  in  America,  Professor  Tucker  may 
well  be  called  its  godfather. 


Dr.  Tucker  went  from  Andover  Seminary  in 
1893,  reluctantly  and  only  after  repeated 
solicitation  from  his  Alma  Mater,  Dartmouth 
College,  to  become  its  president,  leaving  behind 
him  an  accomplished  service  of  inestimable 
value.  Into  this  fresh  field  of  work  he  carried 
the  same  instinct  and  exercise  of  statesman- 
ship, now  to  be  directed  more  particularly  to 
educational  problems.  The  ideals  and  prin- 
ciples which  he  set  at  work  and  which  have 
made  him  so  individual  a  force  in  the  educa- 
tional world  are  admirably  reflected,  alongside 
of  his  ideals  of  citizenship,  in  his  volume, 
."Public-Mindedness,"  published  in  IQIO.1 

One  of   his  most  valuable  services  in  the 

field  of  education   has  been  to  differentiate, 

more  clearly  and  satisfactorily  than  any  other, 

the  function  of  the  college  from  that  of  the 

1  The  Rumford  Press,  Concord,  N.H.  ( 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  165 

technical  school  and  the  university.  This  was 
done  in  his  inaugural  address,  "The  Historic 
College:  Its  Place  in  the  Educational  System." 
The  chief  distinction  which  he  there  draws  is 
in  the  emphasis  which  the  college  traditionally 
and  normally  places  upon  religion: 

There  is  a  clear  difference  in  the  method  and  in 
the  result  of  intellectual  training,  as  you  strike  at 
the  beginning  the  religious  note,  or  the  note  of 
utility,  or  the  note  of  culture.  In  other  words,  the 
college  differs  widely  from  the  technical  school,  and 
measurably  from  the  university,  in  the  provision 
which  it  allows  and  makes  for  the  religious  element. 

Then  follows  a  striking  delineation  of  the 
kind  of  religion  that  should  characterize  the 

college: 

Religion  must  not  be  set  to  do  the  menial  tasks 
of  the  college,  it  must  not  be  made  an  instrument  of 
discipline;  it  must  not  become,  through  any  kind  of 
indifference,  the  repository  of  obsolete  opinions 
or  obsolete  customs;  it  must  not  fall  below  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  the  college;  it  must  not  be  used  to 
maintain  any  artificial  relation  between  the  college 
and  its  constituency.  Religion  justifies  the  tradi- 
tions which  give  it  place  within  the  college,  as  it 
enforces  the  spirit  of  reverence  and  humility,  as 
it  furnishes  the  rational  element  to  faith,  as  it  in- 
forms duty  with  the  sufficient  motive  and  lends 
the  sufficient  inspiration  to  ideals  of  service  and  as 


i66  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

it  subdues   and   consecrates  personal  ambition  to 
the  interests  of  the  common  humanity.1 

In  the  confusing  problem  of  the  readjustment 
of  the  college  curriculum  no  one  has  seen  so 
clearly  as  he  the  fact  that  the  real  issue  lies  in 
the  spirit  in  which  study  is  pursued  rather  than 
in  the  subject.  "We  have  silently  abandoned," 
he  declared,  "the  idea  that  the  chief  ethical 
value  of  college  instruction  lies  in  the  cur- 
riculum." "If  utility  can  create  the  knowing 
mind,  we  want  its  aid.  I  would  accept  at  any 
time  the  moral  result  of  serious  thinking  on 
the  inferior  subject  in  place  of  less  serious 
thinking  upon  the  greater  subject."  2  In  infusing 
high  ideals  and  the  newer  religious  viewpoint 
into  the  life  of  his  students  President  Tucker 
seized  an  opportunity  of  very  great  moment  in 
the  Sunday  vesper  services  in  the  college  chapel. 
The  addresses  which  he  gave  at  these  services 
made  a  deep  impression.  An  example  of  the 
way  in  which  he  used  this  opportunity  for  the 
quickening  of  personal  power  is  to  be  found  in 
the  volume  "Personal  Power:  Counsels  to 
College  Men"  (1910).  These  addresses  vibrate 
with  magnetic  force.  Rugby  Chapel  and  Thomas 

1  Public-Mindedness,  p.  211. 
•Ibid.,  p.  3H- 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  167 

Arnold  have  had  •  their  American  counterpart 
in  Rollins  Chapel  and  William  Jewett  Tucker.1 

VI 

It  is  indicative  of  the  breadth  of  Dr.  Tucker's 
loyalties  and  the  vigor  of  his  sense  of  ethical 
obligation  that  he  has  faced  all  social  duties 
—  moral,  religious,  educational  —  in  the  light 
of  citizenship.  He  has  the  public  mind  and  his 
has  been  an  eloquent  advocacy  of  "public- 
mindedness "  —  one  of  the  words  that  he  has 
raised  out  of  obscurity  to  the  peerage  by  using 
it  as  a  title  for  his  collected  public  addresses. 
For  ethical  integrity,  intellectual  alertness,  and 
spiritual  appeal,  it  would  be  difficult  to  match 
the  addresses  upon  citizenship  which  are  re- 
produced in  this  volume.  In  them  he  shows 
himself  master  of  the  ideals  and  principles  of 
Christian  citizenship  and  of  the  power  to  put 
these  in  a  quickening  and  inspiring  light. 

'The  influence  which  President  Tucker  has  had  over  Dart- 
mouth students  is  finely  expressed  in  an  address  to  the  Class  of 
1899  at  its  fifteenth  year  reunion,  by  Professor  Kau-Ichi  Asakawa, 
a  member  of  the  class.  At  the  close  of  this  tribute  Mr.  Asakawa 
said:  "The  source  of  Dr.  Tucker's  power  was  purely  spiritual; 
it  was  the  surrender  of  self,  reverence  and  humility,  reinforced 
by  his  intense  nature.  The  ultimate  results  of  service  born  of  such 
a  source  must  necessarily  far  exceed  the  results  that  are  known 
to  its  author.  We  all  carry  some  of  these  results.  Through  us  they 
shall  multiply"  (dlumni  Magazine,  March,  1915). 


168  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Perhaps  he  never  made  a  more  telling 
speech  than  that  in  which  he  addressed  himself 
to  direct  combat  with  a  serious  evil  that 
threatened  the  good  name  of  the  State  of  New 
Hampshire.  I  refer  to  the  speech,  "The  New 
England  Breeders'  Club,"  delivered  at  Man- 
chester, N.H.,  January  14,  igoo".1  Here,  in  the 
person  of  the  president  of  Dartmouth  College, 
appeared  the  scholar  in  politics  at  his  best, 
thoroughly  in  earnest  and  as  thoroughly  in- 
formed, meeting  the  narrowness  of  an  acute 
and  skillful  group  of  designing  men  with  an 
exposure  of  the  motives  and  effects  of  their 
designs  upon  the  people  as  keen  and  piercing  as 
it  was  fair  and  above  vituperation.  There  was 
no  cheap  sentiment  in  the  speech,  no  stage 
thunder  of  moral  invective,  no  puritanic  dis- 
dain of  the  devotees  of  sport  or  of  the  common 
herd  who  patronize  it.  The  speaker  recognized 
the  legitimacy  of  clean  sport.  "Personally  I  may 
go  further  than  some  of  you,"  he  declared,  "  in 
my  advocacy  of  out-of-door  sports.  I  believe 
in  them.  Recreation  is  not  enough.  Sport,  organ- 
ized sport,  has  a  legitimate  place  in  our  mod- 
ern life."  Having  conceded  this,  he  went  on 
to  claim  that  "there  is  a  vast  difference  between 

1  Public-Mindedness,  p.  177. 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  169 

an  evil  like  that  of  betting,  which  may  be  in- 
cidental to  any  contest  (men  may  bet  on  an 
election),  and  the  same  evil  organized  into  a 
sport  and  made  by  the  majority  the  sport  it- 
self." x  Such  distinctions  as  this  are  not  com- 
mon in  that  academic  world  which  prides  itself 
on  its  power  of  making  distinctions;  but  they 
tell  on  the  civilian  moral  sense.  They  told  upon 
the  minds  of  President  Tucker's  hearers.  At  all 
events,  the  license  of  the  New  England  Breeders' 
Club  was  repealed;  and  the  State  of  New 
Hampshire  will  not  soon  forget  this  speech. 

Not  only  in  this  instance,  but  in  others  Dr. 
Tucker  showed  that  he  was  alive  and  aggres- 
sive toward  any  infraction  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  people.  When  benevolent 
patronage  came  forward  in  the  person  of 
Andrew  Carnegie  with  a  definite  theory  of  the 
use  of  wealth  and  a  gift  to  enforce  it  that  seemed 
to  him,  however  generous  and  beneficent, 
inimical  to  the  true  spirit  of  democracy,  he  was 
quick  to  see  the  veiled  danger  and  to  speak 
the  word  of  warning.  In  a  paper  published  in 
"The  Andover  Review"  of  June,  1891,  en- 
titled "The  Gospel  of  Wealth,"  he  analyzed, 
in  fair  but  searching  fashion,  the  theory  of  the 

1  Public-Mindedness,  p.  184. 


170  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

trusteeship  of  wealth  which  Mr.  Carnegie  had 
put  forth  in  his  article  under  the  above  title  in 
"The  North  American  Review."  He  challenged 
the  theory  in  the  name  not  only  of  morality 
but  of  religion.  "I  can  conceive  of  no  greater 
mistake,"  he  said,  "more  disastrous  in  the  end 
to  religion  if  not  to  society,  than  that  of  trying 
to  make  charity  do  the  work  of  justice."  * 

When  one  pauses  to  recall  that  this  challenge 
came  from  a  man  with  no  grievance  and  no 
ulterior  purpose,  holding  a  chair  in  an  in- 
stitution endowed  by  men  in  the  same  class 
with  Mr.  Carnegie,  the  courage  and  significance 
of  it  is  evident.  It  came  from  one  who  clearly 
felt  it  his  duty,  against  his  inclination  to  be 
silent,  to  uphold  the  religious  and  ethical 
ideals  which  he  was  set  to  teach  and  defend. 
The  truth  and  justice  of  this  challenge  has 
become  more  and  more  evident  as  time  has 
made  clearer  both  the  unrivaled  beneficence  of 
Mr.  Carnegie's  princely  gifts  and  the  fallacy 
of  his  theory,  belonging  as  it  does  to  the  de- 
cadent conceptions  of  a  passing  regime.  The 
conscience  and  intelligence  of  America  has 
come  to  endorse  the  statement  of  Dr.  Tucker 
in  an  "Atlantic  Monthly"  article,  "Notes  on 

1  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  XV,  no.  90,  p.  634. 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  171 

the  Progress  of  the  Social  Conscience":  "If  the 
few  can  'administer  wealth  for  the  community 
far  better  than  it  could  or  would  do  for  itself,' 
then  democracy  has  reached  the  limit  of  its 
intelligence  and  responsibility."  x 

Such  citizenship  as  this,  civic,  democratic, 
national,  could  not  but  prove  also  international. 
When  the  Great  War  broke  out,  President 
Tucker,  now  retired  and  unhampered  by 
official  responsibility,  did  not  —  as  did  so  many 
men  of  a  more  superficial  sort  —  break  out  also. 
On  the  contrary,  he  set  himself  to  the  task  of 
serious  and  careful  reflection.  The  result  ap- 
peared in  two  notable  articles  in  "The  Atlantic 
Monthly":  "The  Ethical  Challenge  of  the  War" 
(June,  1915)  and  "The  Crux  of  the  Peace 
Problem"  (April,  I9i6).2  In  the  first  of  these 
articles  the  deceptiveness  of  the  theory  of  the 
state  as  power  is  depicted  and  the  danger 
pointed  out  that  even  a  democratic  state  may 
fall  under  the  "allurements  of  power."  In  the 
second  article  —  which  is  worthy  of  becoming 
a  classic  in  peace  literature  —  is  set  forth  the 
need  of  an  aggressive  note,  the  note  of  moral 
conquest,  in  the  ideal  of  peace  if  it  is  to  com- 

1  See  also:  The  New  Reservation  of  Time,  p.  86. 

*  Both  articles  are  republishcd  in  The  New  Reservation  of  Time. 


172  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

mand  the  loyalty  and  enthusiasm  of  strong 
and  heroic  minds.  The  Christian  spirit,  as  Dr. 
Tucker  makes  clear,  calls  for  no  "piping 
peace"  of  moral  lassitude  and  passionless 
pietism,  but  one  in  which  the  bugles  of  moral 
watchfulness  and  self-conquest  sound  the  "re- 
afBrmation  of  the  great  loyalties,"  a  peace  that 
can  be  attained  and  kept  only  at  the  cost  of 
moral  sacrifice. 

VII 

Courage  and  sagacity:  these  have  been  char- 
acteristic traits  of  Dr.  Tucker,  ethical  valor 
and  intellectual  outlook.  But  at  the  root  of 
these  strong  qualities  there  has  slept  a  spring 
of  inner  refreshment  and  benignity  without 
which  he  could  never  have  won  the  place  he 
holds  in  the  affection  of  his  generation  nor  have 
achieved  the  finer  of  his  accomplished  tasks. 
We  may  best  describe  this  trait  in  one  of  his 
favorite  words,  interpreted  in  a  characteristic 
way,  "sympathy."  Sympathy,  in  his  inter- 
pretation of  it,  is  "the  Christian  term  for  con- 
tact." "It  is  the  most  concrete  and  sensitive 
expression  of  both  love  and  justice.  The  kind  of 
consideration  which  it  demands  of  one  man  in 
behalf  of  another  is  expressed  in  the  personal 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  173 

words  'Put  yourself  in  his  place.'"  x  That  kind 
of  sympathy  he  has  cherished,  cultivated, 
exemplified.  It  is  the  finest  fruit  of  personal 
culture,  "a  hard  and  reluctant  virtue,  as  any  one 
can  discover  for  himself,"  2  but  when  acquired 
it  makes  its  possessor  a  prince  among  men. 

There  are  three  classes  of  men  for  whom  Dr. 
Tucker  has  had  an  especial  sympathy  — 
students,  ministers,  and  workingmen.  Of  his 
sympathy  for  students  we  have  already  spoken. 
They  were  his  intellectual  and  spiritual  kin. 
He  understood  their  hopes  and  aims,  their 
problems  and  temptations,  and  he  knew  how 
to  help  them.  His  availing  sympathy  for  the 
younger  members  of  his  own  earlier  profession 
has  found  expression  in  a  most  penetrative,  wise, 
and  sympathetic  study  of  the  opportunities  and 
dangers  of  personality  in  a  profession  wherein 
the  testing  is  severe  and  subtle  —  "The  Making 
and  Unmaking  of  the  Preacher."  These  unique 
Lyman  Beecher  lectures  for  1898  present  an 
analysis,  not  of  preaching  but  of  the  preacher. 
What  will  make  the  young  preacher,  set  as  he  is, 
in  a  place  of  peculiar  power  and  danger?  What 
will  unmake  him?  If  any  one  knew  the  con- 

1  The  Church  in  Modern  Society,  p.  64. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  64. 


174  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

stituents  of  this  subtle  spiritual  alchemy,  it  was 
Dr.  Tucker.  With  a  skill  as  consummate  as  his 
sympathy,  he  presses  home  upon  the  preacher 
successively  the  demands  of  the  truth  itself,  of 
his  art,  and  of  the  men  to  whom  he  brings  his 
message.  Yet  he  does  not  leave  him  alone  under 
the  weight  of  these  responsibilities.  The  rein- 
forcements which  come  to  one's  aid  in  meeting 
these  demands  are  also  richly  and  humanly 
presented. 

The  finest,  because  the  rarest  and  least  to  be 
expected,  of  Dr.  Tucker's  sympathies  is  that  for 
workingmen.  There  was  no  especial  incentive 
for  this  fellow  feeling,  in  experience  or  contact 
or  circumstance.  It  arose  out  of  pure  chivalry, 
aroused  by  an  intelligent  perception  of  a  field 
of  human  activity  where  sympathy  is  needed 
and  deserved.  Its  roots  doubtless  run  back  into 
his  first  pastorate  in  Manchester,  where  he  came 
in  touch  with  the  industrial  population  of  that 
old  manufacturing  city.  But  the  transfer  thence 
to  Madison  Square  Presbyterian  Church  in 
New  York  and  thence  to  the  professorship  of 
Sacred  Rhetoric  in  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary might  easily  have  broken  this  contact,  had 
it  not  been  for  his  insight  into  the  problem  of 
the  church  as  related  to  industrialism  and  also 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  175 

his  deep  chivalrous  sympathy  for  the  great 
masses  of  his  fellow-men  engaged  in  a  useful 
and  honorable  service,  which  appealed  to  his 
imagination  as  well  as  to  his  sympathy,  yet 
whose  real  claims  to  social  consideration  were  so 
little  recognized. 

The  initial  impulse  of  his  sympathy  for  work- 
ingmen  lay  not  so  much  in  the  fact  that  they 
were  socially  and  economically  "down"  as 
that  they  were  bent  upon  rising  and  were 
rising.  Here  is  a  species  of  sympathy  that  es- 
capes most  men,  —  sympathy  for  those  who  are 
climbing  the  social  ladder  and  may  come  to  oc- 
cupy one  of  its  rungs  with  them.  "Sympathy," 
said  Dr.  Tucker,  "is  the  appreciation  of  the 
endeavor  and  ambition  to  rise  to  higher  levels; 
it  is,  above  all,  the  willingness  to  make  room 
for  men  as  they  rise  and  to  welcome  them  to  the 
places  they  have  earned."  x 

VIII 

This  indispensable  and  to  him  characteris- 
tically Christian  sympathy  Dr.  Tucker  called 
upon  the  church  to  exercise,  in  that  remarkably 
concise  document  of  Christian  leadership,  "The 

'"The  Authority  of  the  Pulpit,"  The  Andover  Review,  October, 
1891,  p.  396. 


176  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Church  in  Modern  Society"  (191 1).1  The  two 
ministries  which  he  puts  forth  in  this  volume 
as  those  through  which  the  church  can  best 
fulfill  its  function  to  modern  society  are 
authority  and  sympathy.  To  these  two  min- 
istries he  has  summoned  the  church  of  to-day. 
After  a  period  of  uncertainty  and  theological 
reconstruction,  it  is  time,  he  asserts,  for  the 
church  to  regain  and  to  exercise,  in  all  humility, 
her  spiritual  authority.  This  is  her  first  duty, 
and  the  second  is  like  unto  it,  sympathy: 
"The  history  of  the  church  proves  by  too 
frequent  illustration  how  empty  a  thing  is 
authority  without  sympathy,  and  how  weak  a 
thing  is  sympathy  without  authority."  2  It  is  in 
the  failure  of  the  church  to  sympathize  that  she 
has  lost  her  hold  on  the  laboring-man:  "The 
church  lost  contact  with  the  workingman  by 
failing  to  understand  him,  much  more  to 
estimate  him,  by  failing  to  sympathize  with 
his  ambition  and  purpose  to  rise,  and  by  fail- 
ing to  do  what  it  might  have  done  to  make  a 
sufficient  place  for  him  in  the  social  order."  3 

Dr.  Tucker's  own  sympathy  for  the  men  and 
women  of  the  industrial  world  was  not  only 

1 A  volume  in  the  series  "Modern  Religious  Problems." 
a  The  Church  in  Modern  Society,  p.  3.         » Ibid.,  p.  80. , 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  177 

thoroughly  manly  and  on  the  level  of  a  common 
humanity,  it  was  confirmed  by  a  careful  study 
and  understanding  of  the  labor  problem.  As  a 
result  of  this  understanding  he  became  one  of 
the  earliest  and  most  intelligent  clerical  sup- 
porters of  trade-unionism.  Without  it  he  saw 
that  the  wage-earner  could  never  have  bettered 
his  condition.  "I  doubt  if  one-quarter  of  the 
gain  [in  the  betterment  of  the  condition  of  labor] 
could  have  been  gained  in  any  other  way,"  he 
declared  in  an  address,  "The  Mind  of  the 
Wage-Earner,"  before  the  twentieth  annual 
convention  of  the  Officials  of  Labor  Bureaus  of 
America  in  1904.  "Trade-unionism  is  the 
business  method  of  effecting  the  betterment  of 
the  wage-earner  under  the  highly  organized 
conditions  of  the  modern  industrial  world."  * 
To  further  the  uplift  of  labor  he  was  anxious  to 
see  the  "mobility"  as  well  as  the  nobility  of 
labor  maintained,  and  the  channels  of  its 
communication  with  other  departments  of  life, 
especially  education,  kept  open,  so  that  there 
would  be  no  sense  of  alienation  and  class 
solidarity  begotten  by  the  sense  of  a  "griev- 
ance." 2  Few  laboring-men  will  ever  know  how 
true  a  friend  they  have  in  President  Tucker  — 

1  Public-Mindedness,  p.  170.  2  Ibid.,  p.  169. 


178  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

another  evidence  of  the  chasms  that  separate  us 
—  but  if  they  knew,  their  cause  could  not  but 
seem  to  them  higher  and  larger  and  less  selfish 
than  they  had  conceived  it  to  be. 

All  of  these  sympathies  of  Dr.  Tucker  bear 
the  marks  of  their  intellectual  and  ethical 
character.  They  are  the  outgoings  of  a  mind 
swift  to  see  where  sympathy  is  due  and  of  a  will 
trained  to  put  itself  in  the  other's  place.  Yet  the 
springs  that  feed  this  intellectual  and  moral 
interest  lie  deep  in  the  heart  of  the  man.  As 
Dr.  George  A.  Gordon  has  said  of  him,  "  he  is 
one  of  the  rarest  of  men,  a  leader  and  lover  of 
men."  One  of  the  things  which  most  impressed 
those  of  us  into  whom  as  professor  of  Homi- 
letics,  he  tried  to  instill  the  passion  and  the 
art  of  preaching  was  his  insistence  that  one 
must  love  his  people.  He  was  fond  of  telling  his 
classes  of  a  man  in  a  certain  congregation  who 
plucked  the  sleeve  of  the  preacher  as  he  came 
down  from  the  pulpit  and  said  to  him,  "You 
love  to  preach,  —  do  you  love  men?"  An  in- 
cident in  his  experience,  related  in  one  of  his 
Yale  lectures,  lets  one  far  into  the  working  of 
his  own  mind  in  this  regard: 

I  may  be  pardoned  if  I  refer  to  an  experience  .  .-. 
in  my  own  early  ministry.  I  had  prepared  a  sermon 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  179 

which  had  been,  I  doubt  not,  profitable  to  me,  but 
which  was  so  utterly  ineffective  as  a  sermon  that  I 
took  the  liberty  of  asking  a  very  discerning  friend 
what  was  the  difficulty  with  it.  His  reply  was  the 
best  criticism  I  ever  received.  "You  seemed  to  me," 
he  said,  "  to  be  more  concerned  about  the  truth  than 
about  men."  Yes,  that  was  the  difficulty.  I  saw  it 

in  a  moment. 

» 

Dr.  Tucker's  love  for  men  is  not  of  the  sen- 
timental order.  It  is  of  the  sort  he  himself  de- 
scribed in  his  noble  address  at  the  Annapolis 
Naval  Academy,  on  "The  Study  of  Greatness." 
Greatness,  as  he  views  it,  has  three  chief  traits 
—  originality,  authority,  and  beneficence;  and 
the  greatest  of  these  is  beneficence.  Without 
it  the  other  two  lack  fruitful  issue. 

Give  the  term  what  range  you  will,  allow  the 
widest  determination,  be  tolerant  of  motives  and 
methods,  but  never  surrender  this  ingredient  or 
factor  of  greatness;  do  not  make  greatness  a  synonym 
of  force,  not  even  in  the  shape  of  intellectualism.1 

That  is  a  test  of  greatness  which  "not  many 
wise,  not  many  mighty"  are  able  to  meet.  Yet 
only  those  who  can  meet  it  are  entitled  to  be 
called  great.  This  "lover  of  men"  is,  for  many, 
among  that  number.  In  him  his  contemporaries 
have  seen  —  to  make  surreptitious  use  of  his 

1  Public-Mind fdnfsjy  p.  343. 


i8o  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

own  words  —  "one  of  their  own  number  actu- 
ally becoming  great,  by  taking  up  into  him- 
self the  material  which  is  common  to  them  all, 
but  which  they  cannot  assimilate  or  control. 
He  sees  the  things  which  lie  unnoted,  perhaps 
undiscovered,  at  their  feet.  He  rules  with  the 
ease  of  power  among  the  forces  which  they  feel 
but  cannot  master.  He  is  supremely,  almost  di- 
vinely, beneficent,  under  the  very  conditions  and 
before  the  very  difficulties  to  which  they  suc- 
cumb in  a  complaining  or  despairing  weakness." r 

IX 

It  may  seem  as  if  in  tracing,  somewhat 
consecutively,  the  service  and  influence  of  one 
whose  work  has  lain  so  largely  in  the  educational 
field  we  had  gone  far  beyond  the  precincts  of 
theology.  Nevertheless  Dr.  Tucker  has  not 
ceased  to  be  a  theologian  in  whatever  form  of 
service  he  has  engaged.  He  has  been  one  of  the 
most  watchful  and  sympathetic  interpreters  of 
the  changing  religious  thought  of  our  time. 

While  all  of  the  members  of  the  group  of 
theological  reconstructionists  to  which  he  be- 
longed were,  in  differing  manner  and  degree, 
modern,  Dr.  Tucker  was  the  most  intensely 

1  Public-Mindedness,  p.  339. 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  181 

and  actively  modern  among  them.  This  passion 
to  understand  and  to  interpret  the  religious  life 
of  his  own  time  appears  in  the  subject  chosen 
for  his  Lowell  Institute  lectures  (1894),  "The 
Influence  of  Religion  To-day,"  in  the  Stone 
lectures  (1895-97),  "The  Effect  of  Democracy 
on  Religious  Progress,"  in  his  lectures  at  Union 
Theological  Seminary  (1902),  and  at  the  Pacific 
School  of  Religion  (1906),  "Modern  Chris- 
tianity," and  indeed  in  all  his  utterances.  Nor 
was  his  interest  confined  to  interpretation.  It 
led  him,  as  we  have  seen,  to  definite  and  tireless 
action  in  the  endeavor  to  mold  society  to  its 
true  ends.  Those  were  well-chosen  words  in 
which  the  successor  of  President  Tucker  con- 
ferred the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  upon 
his  honored  predecessor  in  the  hush  of  "a 
spontaneous  thrill  of  emotion  which  brought 
the  entire  audience  to  its  feet";  "William 
Jewett  Tucker,  ninth  president  and  second 
founder  of  Dartmouth  College,  the  depth  and 
richness  of  your  inner  life,  the  activity  and 
achievement  of  your  outward  life,  will  be  a 
heritage  twice  blessed  to  this  college  forever- 
more."  x  To  maintain  "depth  and  richness  of 
inner  life"  in  the  midst  of  "activity  and  achieve- 

1  Dartmouth  College:  Inauguration  of  President  Nichols,  p.  83. 


1 82  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

merit  of  outward  life"  is  a  rare  attainment, 
especially  as  it  has  meant  in  his  case  also 
maintaining  close  contact  with  the  religious  and 
social  progress  of  his  time. 

How  closely  and  sympathetically  he  has 
kept  in  touch  with  the  social  movement  is 
evidenced-in  his  striking  paper  in  "The  Atlantic 
Monthly"  of  September,  1915,  "Notes  on  the 
Progress  of  the  Social  Conscience,"  republished 
in  that  genial  fruitage  of  his  alert  retirement, 
"The  New  Reservation  of  Time."  In  this  article 
he  summarizes  the  progress  of  the  social  con- 
science as  follows: 

The  social  conscience  has  done  very  much  to 
refurnish  the  public  mind  with  ideas  and  principles 
and  with  conceptions  of  duty  fit  and  adequate  to 
the  new  demands  of  society.  In  particular  it  may  be 
claimed  that  it  has  reinstated  the  conception  of 
justice  above  that  of  charity  in  the  ethics  of  philan- 
thropy; that  it  has  recalled  liberty  to  a  service  in 
behalf  of  economic  freedom  similar  to  that  rendered 
in  behalf  of  political  freedom;  that  it  has  awakened 
a  "sense  of  the  state"  corresponding  to  the  increase 
of  political  responsibilities;  that  it  has  made  society 
sensitive  to  the  inhumanities  of  industrialism,  and 
is  teaching  society  to  estimate  the  property  rights 
which  are  involved  in  human  rights;  and  that  it  is 
creating  an  open  mind  toward  the  entrance  of  woman 
into  civic  life.1 

1  The  New  Reservation  of  Time,  pp.  117,  118. 


WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER  183 

The  modern  spirit  of  which  Dr.  Tucker  has 
been  so  marked  a  representative  is  very  different 
from  that  other  and  more  recent  type  of  modern- 
ity which  is  cheap,  popular,  faddish,  which  iden- 
tifies the  modern  spirit  with  renunciation  of  all 
indebtedness  to  the  past,  which  talks  only  in 
to-day's  slang,  glorifies  the  latest  theory,  and 
confuses  modernity  with  the  passing  notion. 
Against  this  tin-pan  type  of  modernity  such 
seriousness  and  penetration  as  his  would  put 
us  on  guard  as  earnestly  as  against  "the  super- 
ficial and  faithless  interpretation  of  our  times." 
From  heights  far  above  the  clamor  that 
cheapens  life  by  demanding  a  false  leveling  down 
comes  his  voice,  ringing  with  the  sincerity  of  a 
great  challenge,  calling  for  a  leveling  up: 

Let  us  keep  the  path  for  the  democracy  of  toil  and 
struggle  open  to  the  last  material  reward  to  which  it 
is  entitled.  Let  us  keep  the  path  of  the  democracy 
of  the  mind  open  through  every  grade  of  education 
to  the  last  training  of  the  university.  Let  us  keep  the 
path  for  the  democracy  of  the  soul  open  to  every 
spiritual  privilege,  even  if  in  so  doing  we  must  needs 
reconstruct  our  churches.1 

1  Public-Mindtdness,  p.  14. 


CHAPTER  V 

EGBERT   C.   SMYTH   AND   THE   ANDOVER 
THEOLOGY 


EGBERT  COFFIN  SMYTH1 

1829.     August  24.     Born  in  Brunswick,  Me. 

1848.  Graduated  from  Bowdoin  College. 

1849.  Taught  in  Farmington,  N.H. 

1851.     Entered  Bangor  Theological  Seminary,  graduating  in 

1854. 

1854.    Resident  Licentiate  at  Andover  Seminary. 
1856.     Ordained  at  Brunswick,  Me.    : 

1856.  Called  to  chair  of  Natural  Religion  and  Revelation, 

Bowdoin  College. 

1857.  August   12.     Married    Elizabeth    Bradford    Dwight, 

daughter  of  Rev.  William  Dwight,  D.D.,  of  Port- 
land, Me. 
1862-63.     Studied  in  Berlin  and  Halle  Universities. 

1863.     Became  professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  Andover 

Theological  Seminary. 
1866.    Received  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Bowdoin 

College.     ' 
1875.     Elected  a  member  of  the  Prudential  Committee  of  the 

American  Board. 
1877.    Elected  a  trustee  of  Bowdoin  College.    Served  until  his 

death. 

1884.     Became  one  of  the  founders  of  The  Andover  Review. 
1886.     Received    the    degree    of    Doctor   of   Divinity   from 

Harvard  University. 

1886.  Subjected  to  the  charge  of  heresy. 

1887.  Condemned  for  heresy  by  the  Board  of  Visitors  of 

Andover    Seminary.      Appealed    to    the    Supreme 
Court  of  Massachusetts. 

1890.  Trial  before  the  Supreme  Court. 

1891.  Decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  declaring  the  removal 

of  Professor  Smyth  by  the  Board  of  Visitors  illegal 
and  invalid. 

1903.  Presentation  of  a  portrait  of  Professor  Smyth  to  the 

Seminary  by  pupils  and  friends. 

1904.  February  4.     Death  of  Mrs.  Smyth. 
1904.    April  12.     Died  at  Andover. 

1904.    June  8.     Commemorative  Service  at  Andover. 

1  Professor  Smyth  changed  the  pronunciation  of  his  family 
name  to  Smith. 


CHAPTER  V 

EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  AND  THE  ANDOVER 
THEOLOGY 

A  TRUE  conservative  attacked  for  liberalism, 
a  defender  of  orthodoxy  tried  for  heterodoxy,  a 
friend  of  foreign  missions  accused  as  its  foe, — 
Egbert  Coffin  Smyth  was  a  man  whose  true 
measure  has  been  understood  by  few.  Thirty 
years  ago  he  was  the  unwilling  storm-center  of 
a  theological  controversy  whose  receding  tide 
may  seem  to  have  left  little  trace  upon  the 
religious  thought  of  to-day,  yet  which,  through 
his  wisdom,  courage,  and  stedfastness,  reg- 
istered a  victory  for  the  cause  of  religious 
freedom  whose  consequences  will  be  felt  for 
many  generations. 


Here  was  an  institutional  man,  in  the  best 
sense,  —  the  product  and  servant  of  New 
England  religious  and  educational  institutions. 
An  old-style  New  England  academy,  Dummer^ 


1 88  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

a  typical  New  England  college,  Bowdoin,  a 
venerable  New  England  theological  school, 
Bangor,  and  another  still  more  venerable, 
Andover,  and  above  all  and  through  all  this, 
the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  were 
the  institutions  from  which  he  freely  received 
and  to  which  he  freely  gave.  The  son  of  William 
Smyth,  professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natural 
Philosophy  in  Bowdoin  College  from  1823  to 
1868,  he  breathed  from  boyhood  the  atmosphere 
of  this  high-minded  college.  To  it,  he  gave  his 
first  academic  service,  commencing  his  career 
in  1854  as  professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Oratory. 
Two  years  later  he  was  transferred  to  the  chair 
of  Natural  and  Revealed  Religion.  In  1863, 
after  a  year's  theological  study  in  Berlin  and 
Halle  Universities,  he  became  professor  of 
Ecclesiastical  History  in  Andover  Seminary. 
He  was  made  president  of  the  Andover  faculty 
in  1878  and  continued  in  that  office  eighteen 
years.  In  1857,  while  still  at  Bowdoin,  Professor 
Smyth  married  Elizabeth  Bradford  D wight,  a 
lineal  descendant  of  that  Sarah  Pierpont,  wife 
of  Jonathan  Edwards,  who  "seemed  to  be 
always  full  of  joy  and  pleasure  and  no  one 
knew  for  what."  x  Mrs.  Smyth  was  like-minded 
1  See  J.  V.  H.  Allen:  Jonathan  Edwards,  p.  46. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  189 

and  like-hearted  with  her  husband,  a  lover  of 
the  church  of  the  Puritans,  deeply  devoted  to 
many  good  causes,  especially  that  of  Christian 
missions.  Together,  these  two  kindred  spirits 
made  of  the  venerable  and  attractive  old  house 
on  the  edge  of  the  Andover  campus  a  veritable 
House  Beautiful,  "erected  by  the  Lord  of  the 
hill  for  the  relief  and  refreshment  of  Pilgrims." 
Students,  especially,  found  here  a  haven  and 
home  never  to  be  forgotten. 

In  personal  bearing  as  well  as  in  character 
Professor  Smyth  was  the  soul  of  simplicity, 
sincerity,  and  quiet  dignity.  His  most  striking 
feature  was  his  eyes,  which  were  dark,  lumi- 
nous, searching,  and  unfathomably  kind.  I  can- 
not forget  the  first  impression  they  made  upon 
me  as  he  greeted  me,  a  new  student,  in  his  li- 
brary. They  seemed  to  search  out  one's  inmost 
soul  and  at  the  same  time  to  give  himself  in  sym- 
pathetic self-impartation.  That  initial  meeting 
was  followed  by  many  kindnesses  and  hos- 
pitalities, including  a  visit  which  he  made  to 
my  room  a  few  days  after  my  arrival,  to  see  if 
the  new  student  had  a  lamp  and  stove  and  the 
customary  equipment  to  make  one  of  those 
monastic  cells  in  old  Bartlet  Hall  a  little  less 
mortifying  to  the  flesh.  A  Sunday  evening  in  his 


190  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

home,  devoted  to  Christian  hymns,  is  a  memory 
which  I  recall  with  peculiar  pleasure.  The  hymns 
were  not  sung,  but  read  by  him  with  rare  ex- 
pression and  illuminating  comment.  The  evening 
was  filled  with  spirit  wings  and  voices. 

There  was  a  rare  union  of  gentleness  and 
courage  in  this  Christian  scholar  that  made 
him  at  once  enviable  as  a  friend  and  formidable 
as  a  foe.  His  luminous  eyes,  the  home  of  con- 
templation, could  flash  with  fire,  and  his  voice, 
customarily  calm  and  gentle,  could  grow  tense 
and  vibrant  with  conviction  and  emotion  when 
he  was  aroused.  We  of  the  student  body  knew 
well  these  traits  in  him,  yet  what  impressed  us 
most,  I  think,  was  the  steadiness  and  charity 
with  which  he  bore  himself  during  his  accusa- 
tion and  trial,  and  the  imperturbability  with 
which  he  fulfilled  his  seminary  duties  through- 
out a  controversy  that  sadly  disturbed  the 
serenity  of  a  life  devoted  to  the  quiet  pursuits 
of  the  Christian  scholar.  A  typical  scholar  he 
was,  yet  not  apart  from  his  kind.  "If  one  were 
near  him,"  wrote  Dr.  Alexander  McKenzie, 
"it  was  easy  to  see  how  rich  and  generous  his 


nature  was." 


1  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  Reports,  Second  Series, 
vol.  XVIII,  p.  299, 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  191 

ii 

Professor  Smyth  brought  to  Andover,  at  a 
time  when  its  forensic  fame  outshone  its  schol- 
arship, a  scholarly  spirit  and  attainment  of  the 
finest  quality.  Perhaps  no  greater,  certainly  no 
profounder,  theological  scholar  has  appeared  in 
America.  All  of  his  habits  of  mind  and  work 
were  characterized  by  insight  and  thoroughness. 
Yet  he  was  not  scholar  only,  but  leader.  When 
the  light  of  Professor  Park  waned,  he  became 
the  most  vital  force  in  the  Seminary  and  the 
center  of  that  group  of  leaders  who  founded 
"The  Andover  Review,"  and  who  made  An- 
dover the  herald  and  missioner  of  a  forward 
movement  which  has  done  much  to  liberate 
and  expand  religious  thought.  It  was  a  com- 
pany of  men  of  rare  ability  and  attractive- 
ness, as  the  writer  found  when  he  entered  the 
Seminary  in  1886:  William  J.  Tucker,  alert, 
able,  magnetic,  a  genuine  leader  and  one 
"who  marched  breast  forward";  John  W. 
Churchill,  a  man  of  genial  and  gracious  per- 
sonality, master  of  the  art  of  public  speech; 
George  Harris,  theologian  of  the  new  day,  un- 
trammeled,  unconventional,  undogmatic,  con- 
cerned with  the  ethical  rather  than  the  specu- 


192  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

lative,  at  home  with  the  students,  and  possessed 
of  a  dry  humor  that  was  no  slight  assistant  in 
purging  theology  of  cant  and  convention,1  and 
Edward  Y.  Hincks,  one  of  the  most  earnest  of 
scholars  and  thinkers,  who  put  conscience  and 
judgment  into  every  position  he  took  and  into 
every  piece  of  work  he  did  and  who  bore  with 
him  to  Cambridge  the  spiritual  strength  and 
integrity  of  Andover  Hill.  These  were  the  leaders 
of  the  "Andover  Movement."  Associated  with 
them  on  the  faculty,  and  in  hearty  sympathy 
with  them,  were  John  P.  Gulliver,  trained  in  the 
older  thought  but  hospitable  to  the  new;  John 
P.  Taylor,  in  whom  culture  and  kindliness 
blended;  Frank  E.  Woodruff,  able  New  Testa- 
ment scholar;  and  George  F.  Moore,  whose 
brilliant,  accurate,  and  extensive  scholarship 
made  his  students  marvel  and  who  has  brought 
honor  both  to  Andover  and  to  Harvard  Univer- 
sity. Of  this  faculty,  the  first  five  constituted 
the  Seminary's  theological  athletic  team,  heart- 
ily supported  by  the  rest;  and  notable  teamwork 
they  did,  each  gaining  thereby  the  strength  of 
the  whole  and  throwing  his  own  into  it  with 
complete  devotion.  Without  the  least  assump- 

1  Dr.  Harris  has  published  Moral  Evolution  (1896);  Inequality 
and  Progress  (1897);  A  Century's  Change  in  Religion  (1914). 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  193 

tion,  Professor  Smyth,  by  right  of  years  and 
courtesy  of  prior  standing,  as  well  as  attain- 
ment, became  the  recognized  head  of  the  group. 
The  story  of  the  rise  of  the  "Andover  The- 
ology," the  contest  of  the  faculty  with  the  home 
secretary  of  the  American  Board,  and  of  the 
attempt  on  the  part  of  a  company  of  self- 
appointed  accusers  to  remove  the  five  offending 
professors  from  their  chairs,  may  be  found  in 
the  current  prints  and  has  been  more  adequately 
retold  by  one  of  their  own  number.1  These  men 
were  no  sinecurists.  Without  in  any  way  neglect- 
ing their  duties  as  teachers  and  scholars,  in  the 
midst  of  their  service  to  the  churches  and  the 
annoyances  of  controversial  disturbance,  they 
established  and  edited  a  monthly  theological 
review,  which  at  once  took  its  place  as  the  lead- 
ing religious  review  of  America.  The  service  of 
"The  Andover  Review"  (1884-1903)  in  behalf 
of  theological  and  educational  advance  was 
large.  It  was  not  only  free  and  intelligent  in  its 
attitude  toward  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
questions,  but  its  pages  contained  fresh  discus- 
sions of  educational,  philosophical,  and  literary 
topics,  always  in  the  temper  and  spirit  of  vital 
Christianity.  Among  its  contributors  were 
•See  W.  J.  Tucker:  My  Gftitration,  pp.  101-221. 


194  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

George  H.  Palmer,  George  A.  Gordon,  Francis 
H.  Johnson,  S.  W.  Dike,  Joseph  Le  Conte, 
William  T.  Harris,  A.  P.  Peabody,  C.  C.  Ever- 
ett, C.  C.  Starbuck,  B.  P.  Bowne,  Bliss  Perry, 
John  Dewey,  W.  D.  Hyde,  and  others  of  like 
caliber.  The  editorials  were  frankly  and  freely 
devoted  in  large  part  to  the  issues  immediately 
at  stake  with  its  editors  and  were  largely  instru- 
mental in  clarifying  and  furthering  their  cause. 
The  opening  article  of  the  first  number,  by 
Professor  Smyth,  on  "The  Theological  Purpose 
of  the  Review,"  was  a  clear  and  able  statement 
of  the  purposes  and  aims  of  a  conservatively 
progressive  theology.  It  offered  as  a  key-note  a 
phrase  used  by  a  leader  of  the  early  church, 
Ignatius,  "Let  us  learn  to  think  according  to 
Christianity";  and  the  kind  of  thought  which 
it  advocated  was  one  true  both  to  the  past  and 
to  the  future  of  Christianity. 

in 

In  estimating  Professor  Smyth's  contribution 
to  American  theology  one  naturally  begins  with 
his  work  as  a  historian.  The  extent  of  his  knowl- 
edge and  resources  in  this  field  cannot  be  fully 
appreciated  for  the  reason  that  he  published  so 
little.  The  note-books  of  his  students,  however, 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  195 

reveal  something  of  his  character  as  scholar  and 
teacher.  In  looking  over  my  notes  of  his  course 
in  Church  History,  I  am  struck  by  the  wisdom 
and  wealth  they  disclose  as  I  could  not  be  at  the 
time  they  were  taken,  although  even  then  they 
kindled  my  admiration.  The  course  commenced 
with  an  illuminating  discussion  of  the  meaning 
and  value  of  history,  which  was  defined  as  "the 
representation  of  events  in  the  life  of  man  in 
their  origin,  law  of  succession,  place,  character, 
influence,  and  end."  The  discussion  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  development  in  history  is  particularly 
noteworthy.  The  lecturer  recognized  its  per- 
tinence and  value,  but  pointed  out  that  "history 
is  not  to  be  identified  with  development." 
"There  is,"  he  asserted,  "a  radical  difference 
between  the  growth  of  a  plant  or  animal  and 
that  of  a  soul.  .  .  .  Spiritual  development  pro- 
ceeds under  a  law  of  freedom,  and  it  belongs  to 
the  essence  of  freedom  that  there  should  be  a 
choice  of  ends. ...  A  process  common  to  Balaam 
and  his  ass  cannot  give  us  particular  knowledge. 
Development  clarifies  and  intensifies  the  study 
of  causes,  but  leads,  after  all,  to  the  study  of 
causes."  Next  were  taken  up  in  turn  the  sources, 
methods,  and  divisions  of  church  history, 
followed  by  a  survey  of  each  of  the  main  epochs, 


196  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

eras,  and  periods.  Chief  attention  was  given  to 
the  ancient  church  and  to  the  history  of  doctrine. 
The  history  of  Christology  as  related  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  especially  thorough 
and  thoughtful.  The  mediaeval  era  was  briefly 
but  lucidly  outlined.  The  modern  era  received 
limited  but  suggestive  treatment.  It  included  a 
number  of  sagacious  estimates  of  men  and 
movements  and  closed  with  an  extremely 
perspicuous  survey  of  Kant's  theology,  in 
which  both  the  sufficiencies  and  insufficiencies 
of  the  Kantian  system  were  pointed  out.  The 
theologian  left  before  the  mind  at  the  close  of 
the  course  was,  most  fittingly,  Schleiermacher, 
the  founder  of  modern  theology.  The  con- 
cluding word  was  a  pertinent  one  concerning 
the  relation  of  the  permanent  to  the  varying 
elements  in  doctrine,  as  disclosed  in  its  history. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  these  lectures  were  too 
far  above  the  heads  of  the  students.  Dr.  Alex- 
ander McKenzie  said  of  them  that  they  were 
"the  work  of  a  scholar  for  men  who  desired  to 
be  scholars."  x  But  they  fostered  a  catholic  and 
comprehensive  view  of  history  and  left  a  lasting 
impression  on 'the  minds  of  all  his  pupils. 

1  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Second  Series,  vol.  XVIII, 
p.  298. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  197 

While  the  lectures  reveal  the  breadth  and 
compass  of  Dr.  Smyth's  knowledge  of  church 
history  as  a  whole,  he  had  also  chosen  and 
specialized  subjects  of  study  and  investigation. 
Chief  of  these  was  the  founder  of  New  England 
theology,  Jonathan  Edwards,  many  of  whose 
unpublished  manuscripts  came  into  his  hands 
through  Mrs.  Smyth.  He  published  an  account 
of  some  of  the  earlier  of  these  manuscripts  and 
printed  one  in  full  in  "The  Andover  Review" 
—  the  remarkably  interesting  paper,  "The 
Flying  Spider,"  written  when  Edwards  was  a 
boy.1  The  address  given  by  him  at  the  exercises 
commemorating  the  two  hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  Edwards,  at  Andover,  his  review 
of  Allen's  life  of  Edwards,2  and  his  notable 
article  on  "Jonathan  Edwards'  Idealism,"  in 
"The  American  Journal  of  Theology,"  3  consti- 
tute the  most  discerning  and  appreciative  inter- 
pretation of  Edwards  that  has  yet  been  made. 

Professor  Smyth  was  not  only  a  historian, 
but  a  systematic  theologian.  He  advanced  from 
historical  study  to  constructive  thought,  gain- 
ing thereby  the  large  advantage  of  building 

f1  The  dndover  Review,  vol.  XIII,  no.  73,  pp.  1-19. 
3  Ibid.,  no.  75,  pp.  285-304. 
*  Vol.  I,  no.  4,  pp.  950-64- 


198  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

theology  upon  the  foundation  of  historically 
experienced  and  tested  truth.  I  have  termed 
him,  as  have  others,  a  conservative.  He  was 
such,  in  the  sense  of  one  who,  in  Tennyson's 
phrase,  "lops  the  moldering  branch  away," 
yet  conserves  all  that  has  true  life  in  it.  Yet  in 
his  open-minded  attitude  toward  truth  he  was 
a  progressive.  From  his  study  of  history  he  came 
to  realize  more  fully  the  need  of  a  "progressive 
orthodoxy,"  of  constant  advance  in  the  inter- 
pretation and  application  of  Christianity,  and 
he  had  very  clear  and  strong  convictions 
as  to  the  nature  of  Christian  truth  and  the  di- 
rection which  doctrinal  development  should 
take  in  the  future.  In  spite  of  the  detached  and 
occasional  character  of  his  writings  it  is  not 
difficult  to  determine  the  convictions  and  ideas 
which  were  foremost  in  his  thinking.  To  these 
our  attention  will  now  be  turned. 

IV 

In  his  conception  of  the  nature  of  religious 
truth,  Professor  Smyth  was  clearly  and  con- 
vincedly  an  intuitionist.  This  is  brought  out  in 
a  striking  and  characteristic  manner  in  the 
lecture,  "From  Lessing  to  Schleiermacher,  or 
from  Rationalism  to  Faith,"  which  he  gave  in 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  199 

1870,  in  the  course  of  Boston  lectures  on  "Chris- 
tianity and  Skepticism."  In  this  lecture  he  first 
makes  a  searching  analysis  of  rationalism,  as 
exemplified  in  Lessing,  concluding  that  while 
"  whatever  is  erroneous  in  this  higher  Rational- 
ism may  be  overcome,  what  is  true  and  legiti- 
mate in  it  must  be  accepted."  With  Lessing's 
rationalism  he  contrasts  —  clearly  to  the  form- 
er's disadvantage — faith,  as  it  appears  in 
Schleiermacher,  "whose  principle  is,  in  a  word, 
that  of  Immediateness."  "More  fully  stated 
it  is  this:  'The  soul  is  created  for  religious  com- 
munion, and,  in  this  communion,  attains  to 
religious  certainty'"1  This  immediacy  is  not, 
however,  irrational.  For,  as  Dr.  Smyth — both 
expounding  and  following  Schleiermacher  — 
goes  on  to  show,  immediate  knowledge,  in  the 
sphere  of  religion,  is  not  merely  subjective  and 
individual;  it  is  capable  of  verification.  "Every 
•intuition  of  reason,  every  species  of  knowledge 
founded  in  immediate  consciousness,  every 
ultimate  principle,  is  susceptible  of  verification. 
If  genuine,  it  will  stand  all  the  tests  of  the 
understanding,  of  logic,  of  experience,  of  his- 
tory, of  life.  The  knowledge  is  not  grounded  in 
these  tests.  The  certainty  is  immediately  given. 

1  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  I,  no.  4,  p.  296. 


200  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Yet  the  tests  guard  against  mistake."  x  Thus 
distinctly,  fully,  and  understandingly  he  adopts 
and  defends  the  intuitive  method  of  religious 
knowledge;  and  this  viewpoint  governs  all  of 
his  thinking. 


The  dominating  —  one  might  almost  say 
passionate  —  interest  of  a  mind  so  devotedly 
attached  to  Christ  was,  quite  naturally,  Christ- 
ology.  If  the  New  Theology  is  Christocentric, 
in  Egbert  Smyth  it  is  thrice  accentuated.  He 
understood,  better  perhaps  than  any  American 
theologian  of  his  time,  the  place  occupied  by 
Christ  in  the  history  of  Christian  doctrine. 
He  was  a  modern  Athanasian.  He  valued 
very  highly  the  logos  doctrine  of  Clement  and 
Origen,  but  it  was  the  eternal  sonship  doctrine 
!of  Athanasius  which  appealed  to  him  as  the 
final  evaluation  of  Christ.  No  one  realized  bet- 
ter than  he  the  central  place  of  Christ  in  the 
greatest  eras  of  Christian  theology.  He  knew 
how  constitutive  and  controlling  was  His  place 
in  the  sub-apostolic  as  well  as  in  the  apostolic 
church.2  He  understood  how  potent  and  per- 

1  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  I,  no.  4,  p.  308. 
?.  .          a  See  The  Divinity  of  our  Lord,  chaps.  IV  and  V. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  201 

sistent  was  the  mystical  presence  of  Christ  both 
in  Catholicism  and  in  Protestantism.  He  knew 
how  significant  and  vitalizing  was  the  reaffir- 
mation  of  the  Christocentric  position  by  Schlei- 
ermacher  *  and  later  by  Dorner  and  others,  and 
how  essential  it  is  to  maintain  and  advance  this 
position. 

To  this  historical  estimate  of  the  place  of 
Christ  his  own  personal  conviction  gave  con- 
firmation. The  result  was  a  theology  in  which 
Christ  is  supreme.  "Everything  in  Christianity 
centers  in  Christ.2  The  possibility,  the  unity, 
the  unification,  of  a  science  of  divinity  are  given 
in  Him  and  in  Him  alone."  3  Christian  theology 
was  to  him  nothing  if  not  Christocentric.  By 
"Christocentric  Theology"  he  meant,  "not  a 
theology  that  centers  in  what  is  commonly 
understood  by  the  words  '  historic  Christ,' 
but  one  which  centers  in  God  as  revealed  in 
Christ."  ^ 

This,  to  him,  was  the  essence  of  the  New 
Theology.  The  whole  aim  and  motive  of  the 
protagonists  of  progressive  orthodoxy  was,  as 

1  See  lecture  referred  to  above. 

*  Progressive  Orthodoxy,  p.  7. 

»  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  I,  no.  I,  p.  2. 

«  The  Andover  Defence,  p.  171. 


202  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

he  viewed  it,  "under  the  guidance  of  a  central 
and  vital  principle  of  Christianity,  —  namely, 
the  reality  of  Christ's  personal  relation  to  the 
human  race  as  a  whole  and  to  every  member  of 
it,  —  the  principle  of  the  universality  of  Christi- 
anity." x  By  this  principle  every  proposed  ad- 
vance is  to  be  tested.  "The  point  always  to  be 
determined  with  reference  to  any  alleged  im- 
provement is  whether  it  promotes  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  central  principle  of  Christianity  in 
itself  or  in  its  operations."  a  "A  theology  which 
is  not  Christocentric  is  like  a  Ptolemaic  astron- 
omy,—  it  is  out  of  true  relation  to  the  earth  and 
the  heavens,  to  God  and  his  universe." 3  In 
defining  the  nature  of  Christ  which  warrants 
this  universalizing,  Professor  Smyth  lays  the 
strongest  emphasis  upon  the  "uniqueness  of  his 
humanity."  4  From  this  he  passes  to  the  unity  of 
His  Person, —  a  progressive  unity  of  the  human 
and  divine  attained  in  the  act  of  incarnation. 
This  assures  the  absoluteness  of  Christ,  not 
only  in  redemption  but  in  creation. 

This  is  a  more  intensive  as  well  as  a  more 
thoroughly  historical  Christology  than  that  of 
any 'other  of  the  members  of  the  New  Theology 

1  Progressive  Orthodoxy,  p.  3. 

» Ibid.,  p.  13.  » Ibid.,  p.  36.  « Ibid.,  p.  18. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  203 

group.  They  caught  the  significance  of  Christ 
in  the  Gospels  and  the  breadth  and  scope  of 
His  impact  upon  human  life  and  destiny.  He, 
too,  was  fully  alive  to  this,  but  he  probed  more 
deeply  into  that  which  lies  behind  the  influence 
of  Christ  and  which  led  to  the  origin  and  devel- 
opment of  the  doctrine  of  His  person  and  its 
metaphysical  implications.  Perhaps  —  in  line 
with  his  predecessors  —  he  endeavored  to  go 
too  far  in  this  direction.  Deep  things  do  not 
readily  yield  their  secret  to  the  understanding. 
But  it  is  well  to  let  the  mind  move  freely  and 
fearlessly  in  this  great  realm,  if  it  does  not 
become  scholastic,  and  the  intellectual  specu- 
lation of  this  balanced  thinker  is  never  barren 
or  dogmatic. 

Based  upon  this  conception  of  the  Eternal 
Sonship  of  Christ,  Professor  Smyth's  Trinita- 
rianism  was  exceptionally  wide  and  deep, 
though  it  was  never  concentrated  in  any  single 
discussion.  Dr.  Gordon  has  said  of  him  that 
"  he  could  have  written  a  better  book  on  Nicene 
theology  than  any  man  of  his  time,  but  he  did 
not  write  it."  Yet  he  taught  and  disseminated 
it;  and  American  theology  is  the  richer  for  his 
reinterpretation  of  Nicene  theology. 


204  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

VI 

Superficially  associated  with  the  insistence  — : 
on  the  part  of  Dr.  Smyth  and  his  colleagues  — 
upon  the  universality  of  Christianity  and  the 
central  significance  of  the  incarnation,  was  the 
famous  —  or  (in  the  minds  of  its  opponents) 
infamous  —  Andover  theory  of  "Future  Pro- 
bation." The  theory,  as  put  forth  in  the  volume 
by  the  editors  of  "The  Andover  Review,"  "Pro- 
gressive Orthodoxy"  (1885),  is,  in  brief,  "that 
those  who  do  not  know  of  God's  love  in  Christ 
while  they  are  in  the  body  will  have  knowledge 
of  Christ  after  death."1  "Our  belief  is  that 
somewhere  and  sometime  God  will  reveal 
himself  to  every  one  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  that  the  destiny  of  each  and  all  is  deter- 
mined by  the  relation  to  Christ.  If  we  did  not 
believe  this,  Christianity  would  no  longer  be 
for  us  the  universal  religion,  and  the  teaching 
that  Christ  is  Son  of  Man,  the  universal  man, 
the  Head  of  humanity,  would  be  robbed  of  its 
significance."  2  These  words  were  not  written 
by  Professor  Smyth  and  the  hypothesis  itself 
did  not  originate  at  Andover  but  with  Newman 
Smyth  of  New  Haven.  Still,  there  is  no 

1  Progressive  Orthodoxy,  p.  93.  a  Ibid.,  p.  106. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  205 

question  but  that  he  shared  fully  with  the  other 
editors  of  "The  Review"  in  advancing  it  as  an 
alternative  to  the  doctrine  of  the  eternal 
punishment  of  the  heathen  in  the  eschatological 
controversy  into  which  the  Seminary  faculty 
had  been  plunged. 

The  hypothesis,  whatever  may  be  said  in 
behalf  of  its  adoption  as  a  war  measure,  was  a 
weak  one,  philosophically,  ethically,  and  theo- 
logically; and  while  it  seemed  on  the  surface  to 
be  in  accord  with  the  Christocentric  position, 
it  was  in  reality  fundamentally  out  of  accord 
with  it.  This  was  shown  conclusively  in  one  of 
the  most  searching  and  effective  criticisms  in 
the  history  of  American  theology  —  the  article 
in  "The  Andover  Review"  entitled  "Some 
Criticisms  of  the  Andover  Movement,"  x  by 
Rev.  Frederic  Palmer,  D.D.,  at  that  time  rector 
of  the  Episcopal  church  in  Andover,  since  1913 
editor  of  "The  Harvard  Theological  Review." 
The  article  commences  with  a  genuine  and 
generous  tribute  to  Andover.  "  I  have  had  from 
the  first  a  very  hearty  sympathy  with  Andover's 
new  departure,"  wrote  Mr.  Palmer.  "It  has,  in 
my  opinion,  brought  more  healthy  life  into  the 
religious  world  of  New  England  than  any  other 
'  Vol.  XIII,  p.  181. 


206  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

movement  of  the  century."  Then,  after  pointing 
out  the  controversial  conditions  under  which 
the  Andover  theology  took  shape,  the  writer 
describes  its  philosophical  defects.  These  con- 
sist (i)  in  a  failure  to  make  the  Christocentric 
principle  of  judgment  universal,  (2)  in  retain- 
ing too  much  of  the  hard  and  fast  line  between 
scriptural  revelation  and  reason,  (3)  in  regarding 
human  and  divine  as  mutually  exclusive  terms, 
and  (4)  in  failing  to  recognize  completely  the 
Divine  immanence  in  human  life  and  history, 
especially  the  immanence  of  Christ. 

Its  belief  in  the  immanence  of  God  has  not  been 
absorbed  into  its  teachings,  while  of  the  immanence 
of  Christ  it  has  hardly  a  conception.  ...  Its  Christol- 
ogy  vacillates  between  the  old  forensic  view  of 
Christ's  work,  caused  by  the  attempt  to  drop  a  his- 
toric event  bodily  into  the  domain  of  the  spiritual 
and  make  it  do  duty  as  part  of  an  eternal  process, 
and  a  perception  of  St.  Paul's  use  of  the  term 
"Christ,"  as  not  only  the  title  of  Jesus,  but  the 
elucidative  name  of  those  eternal  processes  taking 
place  in  his  soul,  and  in  the  soul  of  humanity,  of 
which  the  historic  Jesus  was  the  climactic  and 
complete  revelation.1 

1  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  XIII,  p.  200.  Without  seeking 
to  segregate  Professor  Smyth's  views  from  those  of  his  col- 
leagues, it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  criticisms  of  Mr.  Palmer 
were  directed  against  parts  of  "Progressive  Orthodoxy,"  not 
from  his  pen. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  207 

The  reply  made  by  the  editors  of  "The  Re- 
view" to  this  criticism  insists  that  the  issue  of 
a  future  probation  was  not  of  their  choosing, 
and  that  it  was  not  their  central  thought.1  They 
disclaimed  any  hostility  to  the  idea  of  an  es- 
sential Christ,  and  declared  that  their  conten- 
tion was  with  "the  attempt  to  set  up  the  theory 
of  a  'potential'  or  'essential  Christ'  in  place  of 
the  actual  redemptive  work  of  Christianity,  as 
the  basis  for  the  dogma  of  the  universal 
decisiveness  of  this  life."  2  This  reply  was  less 
cogent  to  Mr.  Palmer's  criticism  than  to  others 
less  penetrative  than  his  and  failed  to  meet  the 
objections  he  raised.  From  this  time  on,  other 
issues  came  to  the  front  and  the  theory  of 
future  probation  gradually  lapsed  into  com- 
parative obscurity. 

VII 

The  fires  and  incitements  of  controversy 
were  the  means  of  eliciting  from  Professor 
Smyth  one  of  the  most  valuable  services  which 
he  rendered,  i.e.,  his  explication  of  the  true 
function  and  interpretation  of  creeds.  This 
aspect  of  his  defense,  though  now  hardly  more 

1  The  reply  is  in  the  form  of  an  editorial,  vol.  XIII,  pp.  434-442. 
» Ibid.,  p.  441. 


208  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

than  a  memory,  at  the  time  made  a  deep 
impression  because  of  its  thoughtful  and  earnest 
presentation  of  a  principle  of  creed  interpre- 
tation until  then  but  little  recognized,  namely, 
the  historical  method  of  interpretation.  His 
"Defence"  as  presented  to  the  Board  of 
Visitors  of  Andover  Seminary  in  December, 
1886,  is  an  extremely  forceful  document,  unique 
in  character  and  quality  in  the  annals  of  Ameri- 
can theology.1  Its  pertinence,  astuteness,  and 
weight  made  it  a  formidable  factor  in  the  trial. 
By  means  of  a  lucid  history  of  the  origin  of  the 
Andover  Creed  and  the  use  of  ample  and  con- 
vincing citations  from  previous  usage,  the 
defendant  showed  that  the  charges  of  hetero- 
doxy made  by  his  accusers  were  wholly  without 
ground.  That  the  Creed  was,  for  its  day,  both 
concessive  and  progressive  was  certainly  true. 
The  fact  made  a  strong  argument  against 
using  it  as  an  exclusive  and  restrictive  instru- 
ment, and  in  urging  it  Dr.  Smyth  did  much  to 
clarify  the  whole  controversy.  But  that  part 
of  the  defense  is  of  the  most  permanent  value 
which  takes  up  the  nature  of  creed  subscrip- 
tion as  such.  Having  declared,  "I  accept  the 

1  The  Andover  Defence,  published  by  Cupples,  Upham  &  Co., 
Boston,  1887. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  209 

Seminary  Creed  in  its  historical  sense,"  x  he 
went  on  to  state  that  he  meant  by  this: 

(1)  That  the  language  of  the  Creed  must  be  inter- 
preted historically.  Its  traditional  terms,  not  other- 
wise explained,  must  have  their  traditional  mean- 
ing. Whatever  of  strictness,  whatever  of  liberality, 
belongs  to  them  when  thus  understood,  enures  to 
the  subscriber  now  as  at  the  first. 

(2)  Whenever  traditional   language   is   departed 
from    and    new    phraseology    introduced,    we    are 
brought  into  special  contact  with  the  intention  of 
the  Founders. 

(3)  There  is  room  for  a  progressive  interpretation 
and  systematization  of  the  truths  of  the  Creed.  .  .  . 
Historical  interpretation  gives  us  first  the  Creed  as 
it  proves  to  be  a  living  fountain  for  others  who 
receive  it. 

(4)  The  truths  of  the  Seminary  Creed  may  be 
adjusted  to  a  larger  knowledge  and  life  than  were 
open  to  the  framers.  A  historical  study  and  inter- 
pretation of  the  Creed  shows  that  these  truths  came 
to  these  men  as  living  and  fruitful  principles,  and  it 
is  of  the  very  nature  of  such  truths  to  find  new  appli- 
cation and  service  in  new  forms.2 

Besides  the  recognition  of  these  principles, 
the  defendant  asked  the  visitors  to  interpret 
the  Creed  "as  a  whole,"  "to  admit  the  im- 
possibility of  making  every  article  in  its  obliga- 
tion complete  in  itself,  or  any  phrase  literally 

1  The  Andwer  Defence,  p.  162.  *  Ibid.,  p.  171. 


210  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

binding  which  is  traditional  and  contradic- 
tory to  what  is  new  in  the  Creed  and  there- 
fore controlling."  x 

Here,  surely,  is  an  original  and  vital  concep- 
tion of  creed  interpretation.  Over  against  the 
customary  habit  of  taking  a  creed  literally, 
just  as  it  stands,  without  reference  to  the  aims 
of  its  framers  or  the  conditions  out  of  which  it 
sprang,  this  contrasted  point  of  view  regards 
a  creed  not  as  something  to  be  "held  as  an 
infant's  hands  hold,  purposeless,  whatso  is 
placed  therein,"  2  nor  yet  "figuratively,"  but 
as  "a  summary  of  principles  which  are  to  be 
applied  and  developed  from  generation  to 
generation."  Whether  or  not  one  can  fully 
concur  in  this  interpretation  of  the  Andover 
Creed,  it  may  be  granted  that  it  throws  light 
upon  the  nature  of  creeds  and  upon  the  reason- 
able understanding  and  use  of  them.  Through 
such  discussions  as  this  it  is  becoming  evident 
that,  though  creeds  can  never  recover  the 
dominant  place  they  once  had,  they  may  not 
be  treated  as  worthless. 

There  was  nothing  of  fetishism  or  obscurant- 
ism in  Professor  Smyth's  attitude  toward 

1  The  Andover  Defence,  p.  173. 
» J.  R.  Lowell:  The  Cathedral. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  211 

dogma  and  creed,  but  rather  a  sane  and  reverent 
respect. 

Men  sneer  at  religious  dogmas  and  rail  at  their 
authority,  deny  their  possibility  or  rank  them  with 
things  that  perish.  Many  dogmas  have  become  ex- 
tinct. Others  must  go.  Not  all  is  genuine  which 
wears  the  garb  of  orthodoxy.  But  a  genuine  Chris- 
tian dogma  is  not  simply  a  divine  revelation;  it  is 
also  the  surest  and  grandest  achievement  of  human 
I  reason.  It  is,  enduring  as  the  Eternal  Reason.  It  is 
•  the  mind  of  Christ  formed  within  the  minds  of  those 
who  have  learned  to  think  in  his  school  and  after 
Him.  It  has  for  us  the  authority  of  God,  and  at  the 
same  time  it  becomes  the  believer's  personal  con- 
viction and  assurance.  A  brilliant  and  fascinating 
preacher  has  said  that  creeds  are  like  birds'  nests. 
They  give  a  place  to  rest;  but,  like  birds'  nests,  they 
should  be  pulled  down  and  built  new  every  year. 
Too  much  occasion  and  justification  have  been  given 
for  such  a  saying.  It  suggests  a  caution,  but  it  misses 
a  fact.  The  Church  has  not  wholly  failed  to  realize 
its  calling  and  prerogative  in  the  domain  of  religious 
doctrine.  Amid  all  that  is  variable  in  creed  and  the- 
ology, there  are  constant  elements,  truths  and  logical 
statements  of  truths,  that  abide  through  the  cen- 
turies. The  imperfection  of  the  work  should  not  blind 
us  to  the  high  valuing  of  the  workmen.  "Ye  are  of 
more  value  than  many  sparrows."  "Ye  are  my 
friends."  And  this  is  the  privilege  of  friends,  to  know 
the  truth  of  God.  "Henceforth  I  call  you  not  servants, 
for  the  servant  knoweth  not  what  his  Lord  doeth; 
but  I  have  called  you  friends;  for  all  things  that  I 
have  heard  of  niy  Father  I  have  made  known  unto 


212  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

you."  There  is  a  kind  of  depreciation  of  creed  and 
dogma  which  is  at  bottom  a  depreciation  of  reason 
and  liberty  and  Christianity.  Sparrows  produce  no 
Brunelleschis  nor  Michael  Angelos.  They  spread  no 
spacious  domes  over  myriads  of  worshipers  in  the 
succession  of  centuries.  It  is  derogatory  to  human 
reason,  as  well  as  to  the  Christian  Church  and 
Christian  science,  to  deny  to  it  the  power  of  building 
for  all  time.  "I  have  ordained  you  that  your  fruit 
should  remain."  Birds'  nests!  If  theologians  are  tom- 
tits! It  is  derogatory,  also,  and  hostile  to  Christian- 
ity. Through  the  centuries  dogmatic  statements 
have  sprung  from  Christianity  as  naturally  as  trees 
from  seeds.  Christianity  will  doubtless  continue  to 
produce  them  to  the  end  of  time.  The  symbol  of 
Judaism  was  circumcision.  The  symbol  of  Christi- 
anity is  the  Apostles'  Creed, —  Symbolum  Apostoli- 
cum, —  out  of  which  has  sprung,  and  will  continue 
to  grow,  a  theology  centering  in  Christ,  the  only 
begotten  Son  of  the  Father,  the  Eternal  Word.1 


VIII 

The  closing  years  of  Professor  Smyth's  life 
after  his  virtual  acquittal  until  the  death,  in 
1904,  of  Mrs.  Smyth,  were  serene  and  fruitful, 
—  the  more  so,  perhaps,  for  the  storms  through 
which  he  had  passed.  There  was  something 
deeply  catholic  and  joyous  in  his  nature  and  in 
his  attitude  toward  life,  in  spite  of  the  earnest 
conviction,  in  which  he  followed  both  Edwards 

1  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  I,  pp.  3,  4. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  213 

and  Kant,  that  human  nature  is  radically 
diseased  by  sin.  In  reviewing  Allen's  "Jonathan 
Edwards,"  he  comments  on  Edwards'  view  of 
human  life  as  follows: 

Man  the  sinner  and  man  the  creature  were  hope- 
lessly confused.  His  responsibility  filled  the  compass 
of  thought,  his  fall  and  corruption  darkened  the 
whole  natural  horizon.  No  distinctly  conscious 
thought  appears  of  the  larger  and  encompassing 
reality  that  man,  though  sinful,  is  still  the  child  of 
God;  that  his  history  is  an  evolution;  that  his  finite- 
ness  and  weakness  and  need  are  as  great  as  his  sin; 
that  there  is  a  divine  education  of  the  race  and  of 
the  individual  as  well  as  a  moral  probation;  and 
that  the  Son  of  Man  is  the  appointed  Head  of  hu- 
manity in  both  relations.  But  if  Edwards  was  here 
narrow  in  his  view,  it  is  not  breadth  simply  to  see  the 
truth  he  failed  to  discover.  Kant  teaches  as  radical 
a  doctrine  of  depravity  as  Edwards.  The  latter's 
fundamental  postulate  cannot  be  shaken, —  the  uni- 
versality of  sin.  Jesus  teaches  that  man's  greatest 
need  is  not  guidance  but  recovery,  not  truth  but  life.* 

But  when  life  has  been  renewed  and  illumined 
by  Christ  it  becomes  exceedingly  large  and 
attractive.  So  it  appeared  to  this  profound 
student  of  history  as  he  pictures  it  in  a  forceful 
article  which  he  published  in  "The  Andover 
Review"  in  1891,  "The  True  Use  of  the 
World:  Three  Types  of  the  Christian  Life."  In 

*  The  Andover  Rfview,  vol.  XIII,  p.  290. 


214  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

this  paper  he  presents  a  graphic  view  of  the  use 
of  the  world  characteristic  of  the  Greek,  Latin 
and  Protestant  types  of  Christianity,  as  repre- 
sented respectively  by  Macrina  (sister  of 
Basil  the  Great),  St.  Bernard,  and  Luther.1 
The  conclusion  is  as  follows: 

Therefore  —  so  Luther  would  say,  I  doubt  not, 
were  he  with  us  now  —  as  Christian  men  and  women, 
we  must  come  right  in  and  take  possession  of  this 
earthly  life  in  all  its  interests  and  possibilities,  doing 
what  we  can,  and  all  that  we  can,  to  redeem  it  from 
vanity  and  hopelessness,  from  lawlessness  and  self- 
ishness, that  the  beautiful  order  of  the  heavens  may 
be  reflected  in  the  yet  more  glorious  order  of  a  re- 
deemed humanity,  and  of  a  world  recovered  to  its 
divine  uses;  so  that  the  restrictive  precept,  Love 
not  the  world,  will  be  no  longer  needed  because  men 
will  have  learned  in  every  station  and  relation  of 
life  to  love  their  fellows,  and  all  that  concerns  their 
well-being,  even  as  God  so  loved  the  world  as  to 
give  his  only  Son  to  die  for  it.  The  true  use  of  the 
world  is,  not  merely  to  rise  above  it,  not  chiefly  to 
gain  its  discipline,  but  to  save  it. 

In  these  mature  and  hopeful  words  is  re- 
flected the  inner  life  of  this  noble  Christian 
scholar,  true  conservative,  yet  —  paradox 
though  it  be  —  true  progressive,  living  in  the 
world  yet  above  it,  and  having  in  all  things 
"the  mind  of  Christ." 

1  The  Andover  Review,  vol.  XV,  p.  510. 


CHAPTER   VI 
WASHINGTON  GLADDEN 


WASHINGTON   GLADDEN 

1836.     February  n.     Birth  at  Pottsgrove,  Pa. 
1841-42.     Spent  a  year  with  his  grandparents  at  Bedlam,  Mass. 
1852.    Apprenticed    as   printer  in  the  office  of  The  Owego 

Gazette,  Owego,  N.Y. 

1856.     Entered  Williams  College,  graduating  in  1859. 
1860.    Ordained    as    pastor    of    the    First    Congregational 

Methodist  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.Y. 
1860.    December  5.     Married  Jennie  Cohoon  of  Brooklyn, 

N.Y.  (died  1909). 

1861-66.     Pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church,  Morrisania,  N.Y. 
1863.    Engaged   in   hospital  work  with  the  Army  of   the 

Potomac. 
1865.    Delivered  Commencement  poem  "After  the  War  "at 

Williamstown,  Mass. 
1866-71.    Pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church,  North  Adams, 

Mass. 

1871-75.     Religious  editor  of  The  New  York  Independent. 
1875-82.    Pastor  of  the  North  Congregational  Church,  Spring- 
field, Mass. 
1878-81.    Editor  of  Sunday  Afternoon. 

1881.    Received  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  from  University 

of  Wisconsin;  University  of  Notre  Dame,  1905. 
^1882.    Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,  Colum- 
bus, Ohio. 
,1882.    Received  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Roanoke 

College. 

1889.    Lyman  Beecher  lecturer,  Yale  University. 
1893.     Elected  president  of  Illinois  State  University.  Declined. 
1893.     Preacher  to  Harvard  University. 

1900-02.     Served  as  member  of  City  Council,  Columbus,  Ohio. 
1902.    Lyman   Beecher   lecturer,   Yale    University   (second 
series). 

1904.  Moderator  of  the  National  Congregational   Council, 

Des  Moines,  la. 

1905.  Addressed  the  annual  meeting  of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M. 

at  Seattle,  Wash.,  upon  "Shall  Ill-gotten  Gains  be 

sought  for  Christian  Purposes?" 
1917.    Addressed  the  National    Congregational    Council  at 

Columbus,  Ohio. 
.1918.    Death  at  his  hom«  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  July  2. 


CHAPTER  VI' 

WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  AND  THE 
SOCIAL  THEOLOGY 

WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  was  a  man  whom  the 
people  of  America,  long  before  he  finished  his 
long  career  of  service,  learned  to  trust  and  love, 
for  he  gave  them  both  conscience  and  cheer.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  name  one  who  did  more  to 
disseminate  progressive  religious  and  social 
ideas.  He  was  typically,  unqualifiedly,  and  de- 
votedly American,  a  man  of  the  people:  "an 
average  American,"  he  called  himself; x  an 
ideal  American,  many  would  call  him.  He 
won  his  hearing  honestly,  by  patience  and  per- 
sistence. Grandson  of  a  village  shoemaker  and 
son  of  a  country  schoolmaster,  he  was  brought 
up  in  an  intelligent  community  of  the  then 
"West,"  though  having  an  inheritance  of  the 
best  of  New  England  blood.  Working  in  boy- 
hood on  a  farm  and  apprenticed  to  a  printer  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  he  "earned  his  living"  in 
true  American  fashion.  Making  his  own  way  up 

1  Recollections,  p.  I. 


218  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

from  the  bottom,  he  was  "self-made"  in  the  best 
sense,  but  also  home-made,  American-made, 
Christianity-made.  The  name  "Washington" — 
due  to  a  family  tradition  that  his  great-grand- 
father served  in  Washington's  body-guard  — 
has  been  not  unworthily  borne  by  him.  In  sev- 
eral respects  he  was  also  Lincoln-like, —  simple, 
courageous,  trustworthy,  straightforward.  As  a 
liberator  and  fashioner  of  religious  thought  in 
America,  especially  among  those  of  his  own 
Pilgrim  lineage,  he  has  done  signal  service. 


Dr.  Gladden  was  one  of  those  Americans 
whose  life,  in  the  span  it  covered,  in  the  changes 
it  witnessed,  in  the  compass  and  wealth  of  its 
achievement  and  the  measure  of  its  productive- 
ness, fills  one  with  admiration.  In  part  this  re- 
pleteness  was  due  to  the  times  in  which  he 
lived.  The  expansion  and  enrichment  of  this 
country,  cultural  as  well  as  physical,  from  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  the  present, 
has  been  such  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  match 
it  with  a  period  of  equal  duration  in  any  age  or 
land.  The  boy  who  read  the  Bible  by  the  light 
of  pine-knot  and  tallow  dip,  who  began  his 
education  in  the  country  school  where  each 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  219 

scholar  had  a  different  text-book,  who  heard 
Jacob  Knapp  describe  sinners  thrust  back  into 
hell  by  devils  with  pitchforks,  who  trembled 
when  the  afternoon  sunshine  grew  yellow  with 
smoke,  lest  the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand, 
who  saw  the  anti-slavery  movement  take  root 
and  the  clouds  of  the  Civil  War  gather  and 
break,  and  roll  away,  who  heard  the  first  faint 
lispings  of  the  evolution  hypothesis  and  saw  the 
stars  of  Tennyson  and  Browning  rise,  who  wit- 
nessed labor  organized,  who  looked  on  as  elec- 
tricity waved  her  magic  wand  over  invention 
and  industry,  who  hailed  and  heralded  the  New 
Theology,  and  who  saw  the  peace  movement 
wax  and  wane  as  the  Great  War  darkened  first 
over  Europe  and  then  over  his  own  country  — 
yet  detected  behind  the  shadow  the  radiance  of 
a  new  and  nobler  world  order  —  might  well 
exclaim,  "What  hath  God  wrought!" 

The  tale  is  told  with  zest,  clarity,  and  vivid- 
ness, and  with  a  certain  sense  of  wonder  and 
gratitude,  in  his  "Recollections"  (1909).  It  was 
inevitable  that  Dr.  Gladden  should  write  this 
autobiography.  To  have  failed  to  do  so  would 
have  been  disloyalty  to  his  own  nature  and  life- 
history.  It  is  a  book  of  genuine  interest  and  per- 
manent worth.  It  takes  its  place,  in  spite  of  his 


220  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

disclaimer,  among  the  spiritual  romances  of 
American  biography.  A  sagacious  observer  and 
accurate  chronicler,  he  carries  the  reader 
through  the  political,  social,  industrial,  and 
religious  events  of  his  lifetime  with  true  realism 
and  yet  with  the  interpreter's  vision.  His  de- 
scriptions of  the  experiences  connected  with  the 
Civil  War  are  especially  vivid,  and  his  reflec- 
tions upon  it,  as  upon  other  events  of  his  life- 
time, full  of  a  rich  sagacity. 

"Recollections"  portrays  a  life  whose  inter- 
ests and  enterprises  have  been  extraordinarily 
warm  and  varied  and  whose  service  has  flowed 
out  in  many  directions.  Yet  there  is  no  difficulty 
in  determining  its  main  mission.  Washington 
Gladden  was  an  apostle  —  may  we  not  say  the 
apostle  in  this  country  ?  —  of  Applied  Christi- 
anity. The  phrase  "Applied  Christianity"  is 
now  as  familiar  as  it  was  once  strange, —  due  in 
large  degree  to  the  enterprise  of  this  indefati- 
gable exponent  of  it.  How  unfamiliar  the  phrase, 
and  that  for  which  it  stands,  was  thirty  years 
ago,  is  indicated  by  an  incident  which  Dr. 
Gladden  relates  in  connection  with  his  use  of  it 
as  the  title  of  a  proposed  volume: 

To  bring  the  reason  and  the  conscience  of  the 
community,  and  especially  of  the  Christian  com- 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  221 

munity,  into  close  contact  with  this  problem  was 
a  large  part  of  my  endeavor  during  the  first  years  of 
my  life  in  Columbus.  In  several  Sunday  evening 
addresses,  more  or  less  closely  related  to  this  theme, 
most  of  which  were  afterward  printed  in  the  "  Cen- 
tury Magazine"  and  other  periodicals,  and  which 
were  finally  included  in  a  volume  entitled  "Applied 
Christianity,"  I  sought  to  deal  with  this  central  ques- 
tion. The  title  of  the  volume  indicates  the  gist  of  the 
discussions.  I  remember  that  when  I  submitted  this 
volume  to  the  publishers,  Mr.  Scudder,  who  was 
then  the  reader  for  the  firm,  hesitated  over  the  title. 
He  could  not  see  the  force  of  the  adjective.  I  tried 
to  show  him  that  the  whole  significance  of  the  book 
was  in  that  adjective;  that  the  thing  which  the 
world  needed  most  was  a  direct  application  of  the 
Christian  law  to  the  business  of  life.  He  accepted  the 
explanation,  and  I  fancy  that  whatever  may  have 
been  the  fate  of  the  contents  of  the  book,  the  title 
of  it  has  served  to  call  attention  to  an  important 
fact.1 

Since  the  publication  of  "Applied  Chris- 
tianity," in  1887,  a  great  company  of  earnest 
men  and  women  has  devoted  itself  to  the  better- 
ment of  social  and  industrial  conditions.  The 
agencies  and  persons  working  to  this  end  have 
been  many  and  their  points  of  view  varied. 
The  outstanding  motive  of  the  efforts  of 
Gladden  and  of  those  who  caught  his  ideal, 
has  been  the  emphasis  placed  upon  Christianity 

1  Recollections,  p.  297. 


222  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

as  offering  the  only  adequate  motive  and  ideal. 
Social  service  has  meant  for  them  the  applica- 
tion of  Christianity. 

Moreover,  the  Christianity  to  be  applied  was 
very  clearly  conceived  by  Dr.  Gladden.  Behind 
his  social  mission  there  has  been  from  the  first 
not  only  Christian  motive,  but  a  definite, 
tangible,  clear-cut  idea  of  what  Christianity 
means.  He  has  been  theologian  as  well  as  re- 
former; his  has  been  a  distinctly  theological 
Christianity  —  a  Christianity  buttressed,  not 
burdened,  with  theology  —  and  all  his  think- 
ing has  been  conscientiously  and  avowedly 
allied  with  the  New  Theology.  Of  this  theology 
as  the  true  interpretation  of  Christianity  he 
has  been  a  tireless  champion. 

ii 

No  man's  theology  can  be  understood  apart 
from  his  personal  history  and  experience.  In 
the  case  of  Dr.  Gladden  we  possess  an  excep- 
tionally clear  and  accurate  account  of  these. 
As  a  loyal  and  devoted  child  of  the  Puritan 
tradition  in  which  he  was  brought  up,  he 
endeavored,  he  tells  us,  to  enter  into  life  by  the 
strait  gate  of  the  then  accepted  mode  of  con- 
version, which  consisted  of  a  realization  of  one's 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  223 

lost  and  sinful  estate  and  a  full  dedication  of 
himself  to  God,  to  be  followed  by  a  joyous 
assurance  of  acceptance.  With  long  and  earn- 
est eifort  he  sought  this  experience, —  but  in 
vain. 

I  tried  to  do  just  what  I  was  told  to  do.  I  was  to 
"give  myself  away"  in  a  serious  and  complete  self- 
dedication.  I  suppose  that  I  shall  kbe  far  within  the 
truth  if  I  say  that  I  tried  to  do  that,  a  thousand 
times.  But  I  understood  that  when  I  had  done 
it,  properly,  I  should  have  an  immediate  knowledge 
of  the  fact  that  it  had  been  properly  done;  some  evi- 
dence in  my  consciousness  that  could  not  be  mis- 
taken; that  a  light  would  break  in,  or  a  burden  roll 
off,  or  that  some  other  emotional  or  ecstatic  expe- 
rience would  supervene;  and  when  nothing  of  the 
kind  occurred,  the  inevitable  conclusion  was  that 
my  effort  had  been  fruitless;  that  I  had  failed  to 
commend  myself  to  the  favor  of  God,  and  was  still 
under  his  wrath  and  curse.  It  is  not  a  good  thing  for 
any  well-meaning  soul  to  be  left  in  that  predica- 
ment. To  feel  that,  in  spite  of  your  best  endeavors, 
you  are  an  alien  and  an  outcast  from  the  family  of 
God  is  not  encouraging  to  virtue;  it  tends  to  care- 
lessness and  irreverence.  I  have  often  wondered,  in 
later  years,  that  my  faith  did  not  give  way;  that  I 
did  not  become  an  atheist.  It  was  the  memory  of 
my  father,  and  the  consistent  piety  of  my  uncle,  I 
suppose,  which  made  that  impossible.  But  that 
little  unplastered  room  under  the  rafters  in  the  old 
farmhouse,  where  I  lay  so  many  nights,  when  the 
house  was  still,  looking  out  through  the  casement 


224  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

upon  the  unpitying  stars,  has  a  story  to  tell  of  a 
soul  in  great  perplexity  and  trouble  because  it  could 
not  find  God.1 

In  spite  of  this  lack,  he  united  with  the 
Presbyterian  church  and  kept  in  dutiful  at- 
tendance and  observance  of  all  his  religious 
duties  until  he  left  his  uncle's  farm,  which  had 
been  his  home  from  his  eighth  year,  to  go  to  the 
neighboring  village  of  Owego,  N.Y.,  to  learn  the 
printer's  trade.  In  this  more  independent  life, 
he  gradually  dropped  out  of  sympathy  with 
the  church.  He  was  brought  back  by  an  evan- 
gelist "whose  notion  of  Christian  experience  was 
simple  and  sensible"  and  who  quickly  cleared 
away  his  doubts  and  misunderstandings.2  It  is 
evident  that  he  had  been  blindly  reaching  out 
after  an  ethical  and  practical  Christianity.  He 
found  it  at  last  in  the  Congregational  church  of 
Owego,  formed  by  a  company  of  persons  who 
had  withdrawn  from  the  Presbyterian  church 
and  had  called  to  its  pulpit  the  pastor  who  had 
been  dismissed  from  that  church  for  the  serious 
offense  of  praying  in  the  pulpit  for  slaves. 
Released  from  his  misconceptions  and  in  this 
congenial  atmosphere,  Gladden  threw  himself 
into  church  work  with  heartiness  and  satis- 
1  Rfcollfctions,  p.  35.  • Ibid.,  p.  57. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  225 

faction.  His  mind  began  to  turn  toward  the 
ministry  as  a  vocation.  Of  this  intention  he 
writes : 

Such,  then,  was  the  soil  in  which  my  purpose  to 
enter  the  ministry  took  root.  It  was  not  an  individ- 
ualistic pietism  that  appealed  to  me;  it  was  a  relig- 
ion that  laid  hold  upon  life  with  both  hands,  and 
proposed,  first  and  foremost,  to  realize  the  Kingdom 
of  God  in  this  world.1 

Out  of  such  a  temperament  and  experience 
there  might  well  issue  either  no  theology  at  all, 
worth  taking  account  of,  or  a  theology  that 
takes  its  rise  in  the  ethical  and  rational  in- 
stincts. Gladden  was  wise  enough  to  realize 
that  he  needed  a  theology  and  that  the  way  to  it 
lay  through  the  securing  of  a  thorough,  liberal 
education.  Upon  this  pathway  he  speedily  set 
out.  His  joy  in  the  opening  of  the  gates  of  litera- 
ture and  history  is  refreshing.  Classical  studies 
especially  fascinated  him.  He  prepared  for  Will- 
iams College,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1859. 
Rather  surprisingly,  he  stopped  short  of  a  theo- 
logical course  and  after  graduation  entered  at 
once  upon  the  work  of  the  ministry.  Still  he  was 
not  entirely  bereft  of  theological  instruction,  for 
he  had  taken  President  Mark  Hopkins'  course 
1  Recollections,  p.  63. 


226  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

for  the  seniors  in  the  Westminster  Catechism, 
which  he  pronounces  "a  good  equivalent  for  a 
seminary  course  in  systematic  theology."1 
His  studies  with  Professor  John  Bascom,  who 
greatly  helped  him,  were  also  not  unallied  with 
theology. 

Ill 

Slowly  and  thoughtfully  he  worked  out  his 
own  doctrinal  beliefs,  through  the  teaching  of 
his  deepening  experience,  the  Bible,  and  his 
continuous  and  ever-enlarging  reading.  The 
authors  by  whom  his  mind  was  first  set  free  and 
started  on  its  own  unfettered  course  were 
Frederick  Robertson  and  Horace  Bushnell. 
The  latter's  "God  in  Christ"  aroused  him  to  a 
larger  and  more  vital  conception  of  Chris- 
tianity.2 His  first  publication  in  the  field  of 
religion,  the  well-known  little  book  "Being  a 
Christian"  (1876),  reflects  his  own  experience 
and  has  been  a  help  to  many  passing  through  a 
similar  experience. 

The  intellectual  stimulus  of  his  work  and  as- 
sociations steadily  strengthened  and  deepened 
his  thinking.  The  early  years  of  his  ministry 
were  great  "growing  years"  and  the  growth 
1  Recollections,  p.  73.  *  Ibid.,  p.  119. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  227 

never  stopped.   The  thoroughness   and  candor 
with  which  he  faced  the  fundamental  issues  of 
religion  —  the  existence  of  God,  the  possibility 
of  knowing  Him,  the  nature  of  Christ  —  appear 
in  his  first  strictly  theological  volume,  "  Burn- 
ing Questions"  (1889).  It  consists  of  a  series  of 
lectures   originally   given   to   the   students   of 
Ohio   State  University  in   1886.  A  report  of 
these  found  its  way  into  the  "Christian  World" 
of  London  and  was  afterwards  published  in 
book  form  in  that  city,  and  later  in  this  country. 
Several  other  volumes  of  a  doctrinal  character 
followed,    the   two   best   known   being   "How 
Much  is  Left  of  the  Old   Doctrines?"    (1899) 
and  "Present-Day  Theology"  (1913).  "Not  for 
the  scholar  but  for  the  people"  x  are  these, 
as    are    all   his  books.   The    former  is  a  very 
clear    and    cogent    though    unpretentious    ex- 
amination of  the   leading  Christian   doctrines, 
showing  not  only  that  all   that  is  truly  vital 
and  essential  in  each  is  "left,"  but  that  a  great 
deal   more    of    their   true   meaning   and    rela- 
tion  to  life  is   understood    than   ever    before. 
The  force  and  skill  with  which  Dr.  Gladden 
succeeds  in  lopping  off  doctrinal  deadwood  — 
such  as  the  doctrine  of  a  personal  devil,  original 
/Preface  of  How  Much  is  Left  of  the  Old  Doctrines? 


228  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

sin,  the  governmental  theories  of  atonement, 
and  others  —  is  only  equaled  by  the  "  efficient 
grace"  with  which  he  succeeds  in  proving  that 
at  the  heart  of  the  old  doctrines  is  abiding 
truth  that  only  needs  reinterpretation  in  the 
light  of  enlarging  knowledge.  He  is  very 
adept  also  in  showing  the  assistance  which 
science  and  Biblical  criticism  afford  in  bringing 
out  the  larger  spiritual  values  of  fundamental 
doctrines. 

The  interest  and  assent  with  which  these 
straightforward  discussions  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, like  those  upon  "Who  Wrote  the  Bible?" 
were  received  indicated  the  need  of  just  this 
kind  of  popular  yet  thorough  and  scholarly 
treatment.  The  same  interest  showed  itself 
when,  fifteen  years  later,  he  delivered  his  ad- 
dresses "Present-Day  Theology"  to  an  audi- 
ence filling  his  church  on  week-day  evenings. 
It  is  no  slight  service  to  thus  prove  to  a  non- 
theological  age  that  theology  is  still  indispen- 
sable. Dr.  Gladden's  theology  was  frankly  and 
fully  a  theology  for  to-day  and  to-morrow.  He 
was  as  far  as  possible  from  being  a  "theological 
troglodyte" — to  use  a  descriptive  phrase  of 
his  —  and  yet  he  was  never  radical,  destructive, 
or  self-assertive. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  229 

A  characteristic  and  strategic  method  of  his 
is  his  large  and  free  use  of  quotation  from  repre- 
sentative and  reliable  authorities  on  the  subject 
discussed.  "These  are  part  of  the  argument, 
generally  the  best  part,"  he  puts  it  in  one  of  his 
prefaces.  No  one  could  be  wiser  or  more  just  in 
the  use  of  this  art.  He  presents  his  sifted  and 
selected  material  in  neither  a  servile  nor  a 
superior  manner,  but  in  such  a  way  as  to 
strengthen  his  argument;  as  if  he  would  say: 
"You  see,  friends,  these  are  not  my  views  only; 
they  are  those  of  the  best  writers  upon  these 
subjects."  The  inference  sank  in.  Where  two  or 
three  witnessed  together  every  word  was 
established. 

He  was  a  tireless  yet  discerning  reader.  The 
success  with  which  so  busy  a  pastor  and  public 
servant  kept  pace  with  the  most  worth-while 
publications  of  the  day,  not  only  in  theology 
but  in  sociology  and  in  general  literature,  is 
almost  incredible.  One  could  determine  for  prac- 
tical certainty  what  were  the  leading  books 
influencing  intelligent  opinion  at  any  given 
period  by  noting  those  to  which  Dr.  Gladden 
made  reference.  If  a  man  ever  kept  step  with 
the  progress  of  his  generation  it  was  he,  and  the 
number  of  laggards  whom  he  pulled  up  into  line 


230  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

is  legion.  This  habit  continued  as  long  as  he 
could  read  and  preach.  His  eighty-third  year 
found  him  discussing  in  his  pulpit,  with  a  vigor 
which  must  have  perpetually  astonished  his 
congregation,  the  truths  and  errors  of  H.  G. 
Wells'  conception  of  God,  Josiah  Royce's  theory 
of  interpretation,  the  merits  and  defects  of  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge's  investigation  of  the  phenomena 
of  spiritism,  and  other  topics  of  the  theological 
day. 

The  doctrines  upon  which  Dr.  Gladden  laid 
chief  stress  are  the  Divine  Presence  and  Father- 
hood ;  human  sonship  —  heredity  he  character- 
ized as  "God  working  in  us,"  and  environment, 
"  God  working  round  about  us,"1 — ;  Christ,  "the 
ideal  man,  the  consummation  and  the  crown  of 
humanity,  and  therefore  the  manifestation  of 
God"2;  Atonement,  "the  reconciliation  through 
suffering  of  holiness  with  love"3;  Grace  as 
"help"4;  repentance  as  "changing  one's 
mind"5;  the  kingdom  of  God  as  "the  whole 
social  organism,  so  far  as  it  is  affected  by 
Divine  influences" 6;  the  Church  as  "the 

1  How  Much  is  Left  of  the  Old  Doctrines  ?  p.  131. 

a  Ibid.,  p.  173.  3  Mid.,  p.  194.  4  JIM.,  p.  217. 

s  Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Present  Age,  p.  I. 

6  The  Church  and  the  Kingdom,  p.  6. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  231 

central  organ  of  the  social  organism".1;  the 
Bible  as  the  inspired,  but  not  infallible,  book 
of  righteousness  2  made  glorious  by  the  "Divine 
Life  shining  out  of  the  pages  "3f  the  Life  Ever- 
lasting a  reasonable  hope,  based  upon  belief  in 
the  everlasting  love.4 

IV 

Such  was,  in  brief,  Dr.  Gladden's  theology. 
New?  Yes,  to  be  sure,  in  the  sense  that  truth 
newly  discovered  is  ever  fresh  and  fair, —  but 
not  novel.  All  that  is  novel  about  his  theology 
was  his  determination  that  it  should  be  applied, 
utilized,  set  to  work  to  save  not  only  individ- 
uals but  society.  This  demand  that  Christianity 
save  society  was  singularly  new,  but  still  more 
singular  was  it  that  it  should  be  new.  God  being 
such  as  Christianity  has  always  taught  Him  to 
be  —  our  Father  —  why  not  make  all  our 
human  relationships  such  as  a  righteous  and 
loving  Father  requires?  Brotherhood?  Why  not, 
then,  live  as  brothers?  Christ  the  Redeemer  of 
men?  Why  not,  then,  let  Him  redeem  all  our 
deeds  and  relationships?  Immortality?  Why 

1  The  Church  and  the  Kingdom,  p.  24. 

3  Who  Wrote  the  Bible  ?  p.  360.  3  Ibid.,  p.  372. 

*  Present-Day  Theology,  p.  209. 


232  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

not,  then,  begin  to  practice  immortality  and 
make  our  present  life  rich  with  its  vast  poten- 
tialities ? x  Such  were  his  questions.  It  was 
straight  and  pointed  reasoning,  direct  from  the 
premises  of  Christianity  to  a  plain  conclusion. 
It  had  often  been  made  before;  but  not  quite 
in  the  way  Dr.  Gladden  presented  it.  For  he 
held  a  strangely  painful  heresy  as  to  the  direct 
relation  between  creed  and  deed. 

Quite  as  clear  as  his  theological  exposition  of 
Christianity  and  his  principle  that  it  must  be 
applied,  was  his  demonstration  of  the  spirit  and 
manner  in  which  it  should  be  applied.  In  those 
two  admirable  volumes  "Tools  and  the  Man" 
(1893)  and  "Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Present  Age" 
(I^9S)  —  the  former  a  course  of  lectures  first 
delivered  on  the  Lyman  Beecher  Foundation  at 
Yale  in  1889,  and  later  at  Mansfield  College, 
Oxford,  and  Meadville  Theological  School, 
and  the  latter  the  Fletcher  prize  essay  of  Dart- 
mouth College  —  this  instigator  of  Applied 
Christianity  opened  a  new  door  of  duty  and 
opportunity  to  American  Christianity;  or  if  it 
had  already  been  opened  he  opened  it  wider 
and  showed  more  of  what  lay  within. 

Starting  with  a  summary  statement  of  the 
1  The  Practice  of  Immortality  (1901). 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  233 

underlying  truth  of  Christianity  he  proceeded 
to  apply  it  fearlessly  and  cogently  to  existing 
industrial  and  social  conditions,  to  the  vexed 
problems  of  property,  economics,  politics,  so- 
ciety. With  unsparing  and  practiced  hand,  he 
laid  his  well-tempered  axe  at  the  root  of  that 
upas  tree  of  economic  falsehood  —  planted 
by  Adam  Smith  and  watered  by  Ricardo, 
Malthus,  and  others  —  the  theory  that  it  is 
natural  and  right  for  the  individual  to  seek  his 
own  good,  and  if  he  only  seeks  it  hard  enough 
the  result  will  be  the  general  good  of  society.1 
That  is  neither  good  economics  nor  good  Chris- 
tianity, according  to  Washington  Gladden. 

But  is  not  Christianity  a  religion  of  in- 
dividualism? Is  not  its  emphasis  almost  wholly 
upon  the  individual?  No;  answers  Dr.  Gladden. 
"The  end  of  Christianity  is  twofold,  a  perfect 
man  in  a  perfect  society.  These  purposes  are 
never  separated;  they  cannot  be  separated. 
No  man  can  be  redeemed  and  saved  alone;  no 
community  can  be  redeemed  and  elevated  save 
as  the  individuals  of  which  it  is  composed  are 
regenerated." 

This  principle,  with  which  the  first  of  the  Ly- 
man  Beecher  lectures  opens,  is  developed,  re- 
1  Tools  and  ike  Man,  p.  31. 


234  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

inforced,  and  exemplified  so  fully  that  no  one 
need  be  longer  confused  by  the  fatuous  way 
in  which  these  two  principles  have  been  so 
persistently  set  in  opposition  to  one  another. 
The  complementary  character  of  the  two  — 
the  independence  of  the  individual,  the  soli- 
darity of  society  —  is  conclusively  stated  in  a 
classic  chapter,  "The  One  and  the  Many,"  in 
"Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Present  Age."  If  an 
explanatory  supplement  is  ever  added  to  the 
New  Testament,  this  chapter  might  well  be  a 
candidate  for  admission. 

The  most  daringly  theological,  not  to  say 
mystical,  doctrine  in  this  thoroughly  practical, 
social  philosophy  is  the  definition  of  property, 
which  the  author  adopted  from  the  American 
Roman  Catholic  communist  and  mystic  Dr. 
Brownson  (who,  it  may  be  recalled,  belonged 
to  Alcott's  Fruitlands  Colony),  "Property  is 
communion  with  God  through  the  material 
world."  l  This  from  an  advocate  of  Christian 
communism,  adopted  and  applied  by  a  friend 
and  defender  of  Christian  socialism!  Yet  the 
definition  is  well  sustained,  especially  when  the 
author  returns  to  its  defense  in  "Ruling  Ideas 
of  the  Present  Age."3  Admirable  are  the 
1  Tools  and  the  Man,  p.  86.  » Ibid.,  pp.  147-149. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  235 

chapters  "The  Labor  Question,"  "The  Col- 
lapse of  Competition,"  "Cooperation  the  Logic 
of  Christianity,"  "The  Reorganization  of  In- 
dustry," and  "Socialism"  in  "Tools  and  the 
Man";  and  the  chapters  "The  Sacred  and  the 
Secular,"  "Religion  and  Politics,"  and  "One 
but  Twain"  in  "Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Present 
Age." 


Dr.  Gladden's  lifelong  fellow-feeling  for  the 
laboring-man  is  well  known.  It  goes  back,  he 
hints,  to  that  sorrowful  day  when  as  a  boy  of 
eight  he  toiled  in  a  rye-field  all  day  and  received 
at  night  the  munificent  wage  of  half-a-cent  (a 
coin  then  in  circulation).  Perhaps  this  left,  he 
adds  in  recounting  the  incident,  "an  incipient 
sensitiveness  respecting  the  conduct  of  those 
'who  oppress  the  hireling  in  his  wages/  "  * 

At  all  events,  the  rapidly  festering  labor  prob- 
lem which  became  acute  in  the  eighties  found  in 
Dr.  Gladden  a  wise  and  sympathetic  diagnos- 
tician and  physician.  In  the  Ryder  lectures, 
given  in  Steinway  Hall,  Chicago,  in  the  winter 
of  1895-96,  published  under  the  title  "Social 
Facts  and  Forces,"  he  goes  with  considerable 

1  Recollections,  p.  20. 


236  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

detail  into  some  of  the  factors  of  the  labor 
problem.  He  discusses  "The  Factory,"  plead- 
ing for  the  reduction  of  hours  of  labor  and  scor- 
ing the  iniquities  of  child  labor;  "The  Labor 
Union,"  whose  right  to  exist  he  defends  with 
unanswerable  logic;  "The  Corporation,"  "that 
gigantic  immoral  person,"  the  dangers  of  whose 
" soulless"  acts  he  exposes  with  keen  discern- 
ment; "The  Railway,"  whose  predative  rob- 
beries he  ascribes  to  "the  futile  attempt  to 
govern  a  business  which  is  inevitably  and 
properly  a  monopoly  by  the  law  of  competi- 
tion";1 "The  City,"  whose  "inefficient"  and 
"corrupt"  government  he  deplores;  and  "The 
Church,"  which  he  charges  with  "the  chief 
blame  for  the  strife  of  classes  and  the  social  dis- 
location and  divisions."  a 

Here  is  a  series  of  indictments  of  appalling 
magnitude.  Washington  Gladden  never  minced 
matters.  His  courage  was  as  imperial  as  his  out- 
spokenness was  democratic.  Yet  he  was  singu- 
larly free  from  bitterness  and  pessimism.  He 
painted  dark  things  in  their  true  color,  without 
fear  or  favor,  but  he  never  failed  to  show  how 
they  came  to  be  so  black  and  how  the  murk 
could  be  removed  and  another  color  put  on.  He 

1  Recollections,  p.  147.  a  Ibid.,  p.  213. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  237 

did  not  "wait  to  strike  until  the  iron  should  be 
hot;  he  heated  it  by  striking,"  as  he  wrote  of 
the  men  who  overthrew  the  Tweed  ring.1 

VI 

How  far  is  this  task  of  social  regeneration 
committed  to  the  church;  how  far  to  the  pulpit? 
Dr.  Gladden  took  a  very  positive  position  on 
this  question: 

To  my  own  mind,  the  conclusive  evidences  of  the 
truth  of  Christianity  are  found  in  the  social  move- 
ments of  the  world  about  me.  I  know  that  Christ  is 
king  of  men,  that  his  kingdom  is  the  kingdom  of  the 
truth,  because  I  see  that  he  has  laid  down  laws  to 
which  men  must  conform  in  every  relation  of  life  if 
they  would  be  happy  and  prosperous  and  free.  To 
make  plain  this  truth  to  men,  to  show  them  that 
Christ  is  actually  establishing  his  kingdom  in  this 
world,  is  one  way  —  it  seems  to  me  a  very  effective 
way  —  of  preaching  Christ.  Yet  there  are  persons 
who  will  listen  to  such  a  presentation,  and  then 
lament  that  Christ  is  not  preached.  A  man  who  had 
never  seen  any  light  save  one  feeble  ray  that  came 
through  a  keyhole  into  the  dungeon  where  he  was 
confined  might  lament,  if  you  took  him  out  of  doors 
at  noonday,  because  you  had  deprived  him  of  his 
vision  of  the  light.  So  a  man  who  knows  nothing  of 
Christ  except  the  glimmering  beams  of  his  beauty 
that  find  their  way  through  the  cracks  and  orifices 
of  some  theological  system  may  feel  himself  bereft 
1  Recollections,  p.  200. 


238  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

if  you  show  him  the  Light  of  the  world  shining  with 
noonday  splendor  all  over  the  field  of  modern  his- 
tory. But  men  who  are  in  the  habit  of  living  out  of 
doors  can  hardly  be  expected  to  adjust  their  vision 
to  the  optical  infirmities  of  theological  troglodytes.1 

This  is  clear  and  convincing  as  a  general  prin- 
ciple, but  it  left  many  difficulties  unsolved. 
Many  weak  men  made  the  pulpit  a  place  for 
political  bluster  or  buried  it  under  sociological 
sawdust.  Dr.  Gladden,  like  many  others,  felt  the 
need  of  a  further  utterance  upon  the  subject. 
Consequently  he  made  use,  with  care  and  thor- 
oughness, of  the  opportunity  of  a  second  series 
of  lectures  on  the  Lyman  Beecher  Foundation, 
entitled  "Social  Salvation"  (1902).  The  pur- 
pose of  this  course  is  thus  stated  in  the  Preface: 
"If  Society  were  articulate,  its  cry  would  be, 
'What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?'  That  is  the  so- 
cial question  which  this  volume  tries  to  answer." 

In  dealing  with  the  problem  of  the  pulpit  and 
the  social  message,  in  the  first  chapter,  the  lec- 
turer displays  the  spirit  of  fairness  and  modera- 
tion with  which  he  was  accustomed  to  meet 
every  issue.  He  selects  two  of  the  strongest  pos- 
sible critics  of  the  social  message,  Dr.  Robert 
Dale  and  J.  Brierly,  and  allows  them  to  state 
*  Tools  and  the  Man,  pp.  177,  178. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  239 

their  case  in  their  own  words.  After  quoting  the 
latter' s  statement,  "When  the  minister  has 
become  merely  political,  it  is  because  he  has 
lost  grip  on  religion,"  he  continues.  "That 
proposition  ought  to  require  no  argument.  The 
minister  who  has  become  merely  or  mainly 
political,  or  sociological,  or  scientific  has  aban- 
doned his  vocation.  The  minister  to  whom  relig- 
ion is  not  the  central  and  culminating  power 
in  all  his  teaching  has  no  right  to  any  Christian 
pulpit."  Having  granted  this,  he  goes  on  to  say: 
"It  is  the  religion  of  politics,  of  economics,  of 
sociology  that  we  are  to  teach,  nothing  else. 
We  are  to  bring  the  truths  and  powers  of  the 
spiritual  world,  the  eternal  world,  to  bear  upon 
all  these  themes.  This  is  what  we  have  to  do 
with  these  social  questions,  and  we  have  noth- 
ing else  to  do  with  them."  x 

VII 

The  fearlessness  of  Dr.  Gladden  in  insisting 
that  the  application  of  ethical  principles  should 
begin  at  the  house  of  God  is  well  evidenced  in 
his  attack  upon  "tainted  money."  In  this  fa- 
mous episode  he  invaded  the  sacred  precincts 
of  the  oldest  and  most  honored  missionary 

1  Social  Salvation,  p.  26. 


240  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

society  in  the  country,  which  he  revered  and 
loved,  and  charged  its  chief  officials  with  seek- 
ing the  ill-gotten  gains  of  "predatory  wealth." 
Carrying  the  battle  into  the  open  and  laying  his 
case  before  the  public,  as  well  as  before  the 
American  Board,  he  forced  the  conscience  of 
the  church  and  the  nation  to  face  the  issue. 
Other  men  would  have  pressed  the  matter  less 
urgently,  more  privately  and  quietly.  That  was 
not  Washington  Gladden's  way.  He  always  took 
the  public  into  his  confidence,  with  perfect 
naturalness  and  conscientiousness.  Was  not 
this  a  matter  that  concerned  the  honor  of  the 
whole  family?  Well,  then,  let  the  family  con- 
sider it  and  rectify  the  wrong!  Whatever  may 
be  said  as  to  the  ethics  involved  in  this  until- 
then-dormant  issue,  it  must  be  said  that  Dr. 
Gladden  conducted  the  prosecution  in  an  ad- 
mirable spirit.  He  was  blunt,  but  not  belliger- 
ent; persistent,  but  not  personal. 

His  ethical  crusades  were  singularly  dis- 
interested. If  he  lacked  tact,  he  had  something 
infinitely  greater  than  tact  —  unbounded  good- 
will. Without  hesitation  or  caution  he  struck 
at  existing  evil  wherever  it  showed  its  head, 
even  in  the  ranks  of  his  friends  and  brethren; 
but  his  frankness  and  sincerity  took  the  sting 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  241 

out  of  his  assaults.  Did  he  win  a  verdict  against 
the  use  of  "tainted  money"?  Decision  has  not 
yet  been  handed  down  —  either  by  the  Ameri- 
can Board  or  by  the  public.  One  fact  emerges. 
Things  have  been  different,  measurably  so  at 
least,  since.  The  money  conscience  is  a  little 
more  sensitive.  The  "New  Idolatry"  of  ancient 
mammon  is  not  so  obtrusive. 

With  all  his  downrightness  —  indeed,  this  is 
one  indication  of  the  fact  —  Dr.  Gladden  was 
a  lover  of  men.  He  loved  them  singly,  in  their 
homes  and  in  the  church.  How  deep  and 
unwearied  was  the  pastoral  instinct  in  him! 
fervent  as  that  of  the  old-time  family  pastor  and 
spiritual  father.  He  loved  men  also  in  masses. 
He  had  faith  in  that  caldron  of  good  and  evil, 
beauty  and  ugliness,  the  modern  city.  His  own 
city  was  dear  to  him.  He  did  much  for  its  in- 
stitutions, its  government,  its  higher  life.  For 
two  years  he  served  on  the  City  Council  — 
where  he  was  influential  in  securing  a  lower 
street-car  fare  and  other  civic  improvements  — 
furnishing  an  object  lesson  in  civic  fidelity  to 
the  whole  nation.  One  of  his  volumes,  "The 
Cosmopolis  Club,"  is  a  study  of  the  city.1  It 

1  The  Cosmopolis  Club  (1893).  See  also  the  chapter  "The 
Redemption  of  the  City,"  in  the  volume  Social  Salvation. 


242  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

appeared  first  as  a  most  timely  and  influential 
series  of  articles  in  "The  Century  Magazine." 
He  was  not  afraid  of  being  soiled  by  the  filth  of 
politics.  He  had  a  great  respect  for  the  sacred- 
ness  and  power  of  the  ballot.  "The  powers  that 
be"  of  to-day,  he  pointed  out,  are  the  voters. 
It  is  they  who  are  ordained  of  God,  and  worthy 
of  respect.  By  their  means  —  if  they  would 
exercise  their  prerogative  —  he  saw  that  govern- 
ment, both  civic  and  national,  could  be  purified. 
"To  them  all  the  power  is  committed.  They 
are  the  sole  depositories  of  the  sovereignty. 
They  are  responsible,  jointly  and  severally,  for 
good  government."  x 

VIII 

These  pressing  concerns  would  seem  to  be 
enough  for  any  one  man  to  carry  on  his  heart 
and  his  shoulders.  Yet  they  did  not  exhaust  his 
devotions.  It  was  as  impossible  for  him  to  re- 
main cold  to  any  great  moral  or  spiritual  enter- 
prise of  his  day,  or  to  keep  out  of  any  fight  for 
truth  and  righteousness,  as  for  Hercules  to  leave 
any  of  his  labors  unfulfilled. 

Two  great  moral  crusades  which  sprang  up 
afresh  in  the  later  years  of  his  life  enlisted  his 

1  Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Present  Age,  p.  176. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  243 

earnest  support.  One  is  that  of  church  unity 
and  the  other  that  of  world  peace.  Of  the  former 
he  was  an  early  and  earnest  advocate.  At  the 
very  outset  of  his  career  he  prepared  for  "The 
Century  Magazine"  a  series  of  articles  which 
attracted  much  attention  and  were  afterward 
published  as  a  book  entitled  "The  Christian 
League  of  Connecticut"  (1883).  In  this  well- 
executed  assault  on  denominationalism  an 
imaginary  group  of  Christian  men  and  women 
in  a  New  England  town  cooperate  in  paying 
the  debt  of  one  of  the  churches,  instituting  a 
Young  Men's  Club,  handling  the  problem  of 
pauperism,  starting  a  free  kindergarten,  and 
other  similar  enterprises.  It  was  something  that 
never  had  been  done,  and  yet  something  in  it- 
self so  feasible  and  reasonable,  and  it  was 
presented  in  so  vivacious  and  attractive  a  way, 
that  it  captured  the  imagination  of  thousands. 
Some  readers  thought  that  it  was  a  veritable 
history,  and  others  resolved  that  it  should  be. 

The  league,  togetherness,  cooperation  —  that 
was  a  passion  of  Dr.  Gladden's,  whether  it  in- 
volved individuals,  churches,  states,  or  nations. 
When  the  Great  War  came,  he  saw  that  the 
nations  had  reached  the  "fork  of  the  roads." 
What  would  be  the  outcome, —  militarism  or 


244  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

internationalism?  In  the  Church  Union  prize 
essay  on  peace,  "The  Fork  of  the  Roads" 
(1916),  Dr.  Gladden  sent  out  one  of  his  clarion 
calls  to  the  nation  and  the  church  in  behalf  of 
the  Christian  law  of  cooperation.  It  is  a  vigor- 
ous appeal  for  national  brotherhood.  As  ever 
with  him,  the  Christian  motive  is  at  the  front. 
"If  anything  is  central  in  Christianity,  it  is  the 
obliteration  of  the  lines  of  division  between 
races  and  nationalities,  and  the  inclusion  of  the 
world  in  one  brotherhood.  Whatever  other 
truths  might  be  made  subordinate  or  secondary, 
this  truth  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood  and  the 
human  brotherhood  is  to  be  lifted  into  the 
light  and  held  before  the  thought  of  the  world.  "z 
When  our  nation,  after  long  hesitation,  declared 
war,  he  sought  to  have  it  keep  the  same  high 
aims  and  ideals  as  the  lodestar  of  the  struggle. 
When  one  considers  the  number  of  forward- 
looking  enterprises  and  cooperations  in  which 
he  engaged,  each  clearly  grasped  and  loyally 
maintained,  he  wonders  at  the  kindred  flames 
that  burned  so  high  and  so  long  in  this  catholic 
and  ardent  mind.  He  wonders,  too,  at  the  sleep- 
less zest  of  this  man  in  his  watch-tower,  scan- 
ning every  horizon  for  signs  portentous  of  the 

1  Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Present  Age,  p.  124. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  245 

uprisings  of  evil  and  for  indications  of  the  com- 
ing of  the  kingdom.  Yet  his  watch-tower  has 
not  been  for  observation  simply.  As  soon  as 
he  noted  well  what  action  was  most  needed  he 
descended  to  the  field  and  took  a  yeoman's  part. 
Very  strategic,  too,  as  well  as  prophetic,  was 
his  warfare,  as  is  indicated  in  his  wise  saying  in 
connection  with  his  editorials  in  "The  Inde- 
pendent" in  condemnation  of  the  Tweed  Ring, 
"It  is  often  well  to  assume  that  what  ought  to 
be  will  be."  x 

There  was  a  remarkable  timeliness  in  all  of 
his  knight  errantries.  When  the  young  man  of 
modern  training,  alienated  from  the  church  by 
a  hidebound  theology,  was  searching  for  a 
larger  faith,  Dr.  Gladden  was  one  of  the  first 
and  wisest  to  come  to  his  aid.  When  the  labor- 
ing-man was  struggling  for  his  share  of  life  and 
liberty  in  the  face  of  an  indifferent  or  hostile 
church,  it  was  this  large-minded  pastor  who 
took  his  place  at  his  side.  When  the  honest  citi- 
zen of  limited  powers  was  despairing  of  ever 
seeing  his  city  rescued  from  the  political  mire 
in  which  it  was  wallowing,  he  heard  this  voice 
of  good  cheer  bidding  him  take  his  spade  and 
follow  him  in.  When  there  was  no  one  to  rebuke 
1  ^collections,  p.  206. 


246  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

the  encroachments  of  mammon  upon  the  sacred 
precincts  of  the  church,  it  was  he  who  stood 
forth  to  do  it,  fearless  and  alone.  As  emblematic 
of  the  man  as  if  it  were  his  motto  is  his  revi- 
sion of  the  familiar  saying,  so  as  to  read,  "What 
is  everybody's  business  must  be  my  business."  * 

IX 

,  All  of  these  tasks  were  performed  con  amore. 
He  came  as  near  putting  his  arms  around  the 
whole  of  America  as  a  man  well  can.  Yet  he 
could  detach  them,  too,  to  become  one  of  the 
"knights  of  the  long  arms"2  to  battle  for  the 
causes  and  the  people  he  loved. 
^He  could  be  severe,  also,  with  those  whom 
he  loved,  as  we  have  already  discovered.  More 
than  once  he  rebuked  the  churches  with  ringing 
words,  as  in  the  annual  sermon  before  the  Con- 
gregational Home  Missionary  Society  in  1905, 
when  he  said:  "The  church  has  so  far  forgotten 
its  essential  character  that  it  has  lost  no  small 
measure  of  its  power.  Its  alliance  is  mainly  with 
the  prosperous.  Its  hopes  are  centered  upon  the 
strong  and  the  influential."  3  In  keeping  with 
this  was  his  New  Year  message  for  1918: 

1  Ruling  Ideas,  p.  208.  *  Tools  and  the  Man,  p.  276. 

a  The  New  Idolatry,  p.  148. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  247 

If  after  the  war  the  church  keeps  on  with  the  same 
old  religion,  there  will  be  the  same  old  hell  on  earth 
that  religious  leaders  have  been  preparing  for  cen- 
turies, the  full  fruit  of  which  we  are  gathering  now. 
The  Church  must  cease  to  sanction  those  principles 
of  militaristic  and  atheistic  nationalism  by  which 
the  rulers  of  the  earth  have  so  long  kept  the  world 
at  war.  We  must  not  wait  till  after  war.  That  may 
be  too  late.  Is  not  now  the  accepted  time? 1 

Beside  these  warning  notes  should  be  placed 
these  more  hopeful  words  in  his  chapter 
"October  Sunshine": 

I  am  far  enough  from  thinking  that  the  church 
is  perfect,  or  from  imagining  that  all  the  work  of 
the  Kingdom  is  done  by  the  church.  But  the  church 
has  been,  and  in  increasing  measure  will  be,  the 
vitalizing  and  inspiring  agency  in  the  social  move- 
ment. Unless  the  ideas  and  forces  which  the  church 
stands  for  are  at  the  heart  of  this  movement,  it  will 
come  to  naught;  and  it  will  not  come  to  naught. 
There  is  no  place  in  which  a  man  can  get  nearer  to 
the  heart  of  that  movement  than  in  the  Christian 
: pulpit.  It  is  sometimes  supposed  to  be  a  narrow 
|  place,  but,  as  a  rule,  it  is  as  wide  as  the  man  who 
stands  in  it  chooses  to  make  it.  And  I  know  of  no 
other  position  in  which  a  man  has  so  many  chances 
to  serve  the  community;  in  which  he  is  brought  into 
such  close  and  helpful  relations  with  so  many  kinds 
of  people.  The  field  of  the  church,  under  the  right 
kind  of  leadership,  is  as  wide  as  the  world,  and  the 
force  of  the  church  is  more  responsive  to-day  than 

1  Thf  Pacific,  January  17,  1918. 


248  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

ever  before  to  the  right  kind  of  leadership.  There 
are,  it  is  true,  too  many  churches  which  are  sponges 
rather  than  springs  of  influence, —  which  devote 
their  energies  to  building  themselves  up  out  of  the 
community  instead  of  pouring  themselves  into  the 
community  in  streams  of  service;  which  have  not 
learned  that  it  is  as  true  of  churches  as  of  men,  that 
they  who  would  save  their  lives  lose  them.  But  it  is 
quite  possible  for  a  brave  and  warm-hearted  leader 
to  put  a  new  spirit  into  such  a  church  as  this,  and  a 
conversion  of  that  sort  makes  joy  among  the 
angels.1 


Those  who  knew*  and  loved  Dr.  Gladden  in 
his  later  years  must  have  been  struck  by  his 
tenderness, —  the  kind  of  tenderness  that  blos- 
soms on  the  sturdy  stock  of  strength.  It  showed 
itself  in  his  voice,  in  his  bearing,  in  all  the 
gracious  atmosphere  of  his  autumnal  years. 
There  was  a  great  reverence  in  him  which  came 
out  in  his  ripe  yet  vigorous  age.  Radical  —  or 
rather,  one  should  say,  progressive  —  as  he 
remained  in  his  viewpoint,  whenever  a  question 
came  up  concerning  doctrine  or  the  Bible  (so 
say  his  parishioners),  he  always  sweetened  his 
liberalism  with  a  deeply  reverent  spirit.  Free  and 
fearless  as  he  was,  he  was  no  iconoclast.  Like 

\*  Recollections,  pp.  420,  421. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  249 

his  Master,  the  bruised  reed  he  would  not  break, 
nor  quench  the  smoking  flax. 

Not  unallied  with  this  tenderness  was  an 
appreciation  of  beauty  which  was  his  from 
youth,  but  which  grew  with  the  years,  making 
him  a  lover  of  poetry  and  of  all  noble  literature 
and  prompting  him  to  express  himself  in  well- 
knit  verse  as  well  as  in  telling  prose, —  lest 
there  should  be  one  avenue  of  self-expression 
closed,  one  garden  of  his  soul  uncultured,  one 
of  his  ten  talents  that  he  failed  to  use.  His 
literary  output  has  been  prolific.  He  began  to 
write  for  a  local  paper  almost  as  soon  as  he  had 
learned  to  set  type.  He  was  a  frequent  con- 
tributor to  periodicals  all  his  life.  For  four 
years,  1871-75,  he  was  religious  editor  of 
"The  Independent,"  and  left  it  only  for  con- 
science' sake. x  At  least  thirty-eight  volumes 
besides  numerous  periodical  contributions  — 
none  of  them  mediocre  —  have  come  from  his 
fertile  mind. 

His  books  are,  to  be  sure,  not  treatises  but 
tracts, —  tracts  for  the  people,  but  tracts  of  the 
highest  excellence,  no  ephemera,  but  as  serious 
and  full  of  appeal,  in  their  way,  as  Newman's 
or  Milton's.  Through  them,  as  well  as  by  means 
1  See  Recollections,  chap.  XVI. 


250  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

of  pulpit  and  platform,  he  became  a  trusted  and 
widely  known  teacher  of  the  people. 

The  grace  and  power  of  his  work  as  a  preacher 
are  best  illustrated  in  two  outstanding  volumes 
of  sermons,  "Where  Does  the  Day  Begin?" 
and  his  last  ripe,  wise,  winsome  volume,  "The 
Interpreter."  Though  not  the  possessor  of  a 
conspicuous  style,  he  made  himself  master  of 
pure,  terse,  compact,  and  forceful  English. 
There  is  not  an  ambiguous,  involved,  or  in- 
sincere sentence  in  anything  he  has  written. 
Nothing  is  here  to  puzzle  or  confuse,  —  as 
nothing  to  regret  or  extenuate. 

Hidden,  though  by  no  means  negligible,  in 
this  luxuriant  leafage  is  his  one  volume  of 
poetry,  "Ultima  Veritas."  In  this  the  bright 
particular  star  is  that  immortal  hymn,  long 
ago  discovered  and  adopted  by  the  Christian 
consciousness  and  now  illuminating  every 
modern  hymn-book  worthy  of  the  name,  "Oh, 
Master,  let  me  walk  with  thee."  This  hymn, 
first  published  in  "Sunday  Afternoon,"  was 
written  under  the  sense  of  loneliness  caused  by 
the  author's  theological  isolation.  It  is  a 
heretic's  hymn  —  a  "heretic  of  yesterday" 
and  a  saint  of  to-day. 

Is  the  latter  too  exalted  a  title  to  fit  this 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  251 

rugged,  eveiy-day  man,  companionable  servant 
of  righteousness  and  teacher  of  the  people? 
Not  if  sainthood  means  devotion  to  God  and 
man,  the  holiness  of  a  life  dedicated  to  great 
ends.  Such  a  saint,  vigorous  in  intellect,  pro- 
gressive in  thought,  fearless  in  spirit,  strong  in 
action,  reverent  and  tender  as  a  child,  apostle 
of  Applied  Christianity,  America  may  well  be 
proud  to  add  to  her  calendar, —  a  saint  after 
the  order  of  the  Pilgrim  fathers. 

XI 

The  large  part  which  Dr.  Gladden  had  in 
fashioning  what  is  coming  to  be  termed  the 
"Social  Theology"  makes  it  desirable  to  present 
in  closing  this  chapter  a  brief  survey  of  the  rise 
of  this  theology  and  of  his  relation  to  it. 

If  one  looks  for  the  factors  that  have  entered 
into  the  development  of  the  Christian  social 
consciousness  in  this  country  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years,  he  will  have  to  take  into  account 
many  conspiring  causes,  such  as  the  English 
"Christian  Socialism"  of  Maurice  and  Kingsley 
and  Thomas  Hughes,  the  German  socialism  of 
Karl  Marx  and  Lasalle,  the  growth  of  the  demo- 
cratic ideal  and  the  progress  of  the  historical 
study  of  the  Bible  —  bringing  out,  as  it  has,  the 


252  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

social  ideal  of  the  prophets  in  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  social  meaning  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
in  the  New  Testament.  Stimulated  by  such  in- 
fluences and  incentives  as  these  there  sprang 
up  in  this  country  in  the  last  quarter  of  last 
century,  in  sympathy  with  —  one  might  al- 
most say  about  —  Washington  Gladden,  a 
company  of  Christian  thinkers  and  leaders,  in- 
cluding such  men  as  Josiah  Strong,  Edward 
Everett  Hale,  Francis  G.  Peabody,  William  J. 
Tucker,  William  D.  Hyde,  Henry  C.  King, 
Charles  R.  Brown,  Graham  Taylor,  Charles  R. 
Henderson,  Shailer  Mathews,  George  Hodges, 
and  Walter  Rauschenbusch,  who  bent  their 
energies  to  the  defining  and  propagating  of 
social  Christianity. 

How  vital  a  part  Washington  Gladden  played 
in  this  movement  is  indicated  by  the  following 
words  of  Professor  Rauschenbusch  in  his 
"Christianizing  the  Social  Order" x:  "I  want  to 
pay  the  tribute  of  honor  to  three  men  who 
were  pioneers  of  Christian  social  thought  in 
America  twenty-five  years  ago, —  Washington 
Gladden,  Josiah  Strong,  and  Richard  T.  Ely. 
These  men  had  matured  their  thought  when  the 
rest  of  us  were  young  men  and  they  had  a  spirit 

i  Page  9. 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  253 

in  them  which  kindled  and  compelled  us."  Of 
this  entire  group  of  men,  Gladden  was  the  one 
who  from  the  very  first  laid  greatest  stress  upon 
the  theological  side  of  the  movement.  His 
emphasis  upon  the  part  played  by  theological 
ideas  seems  almost  extravagant.  In  "Ruling 
Ideas  of  the  Present  Age,"  x  he  writes: 

The  belief  in  the  Divine  Fatherhood  has  under- 
mined feudalism  and  destroyed  slavery  and  led  in 
democracy.  The  power  of  this  great  idea  it  is,  more 
than  any  or  all  other  agencies,  which  has  compelled 
the  emancipation  of  the  laboring  classes,  and  the  es- 
tablishment in  so  many  nations  of  political  equality. 

Divine  Fatherhood,  human  brotherhood  — 
these,  as  taught  by  Jesus,  were  to  Dr.  Gladden 
the  two  great  inseparable  truths  upon  which  the 
social  gospel  rests.  Very  simple  theology  is  this, 
but  theology  nevertheless.  Into  the  psychologi- 
cal and  metaphysical  implications  of  these  doc- 
trines he  did  not  go  far,  but  he  was  well  aware, 
as  we  have  seen,  that  not  only  they  but  their 
great  Teacher  himself  have  metaphysical  impli- 
cations which  should  be  followed  out  in  order 
to  get  a  complete  and  well-grounded  philosophy 
of  Christianity.  Nevertheless  the  simple  truths 
themselves  are,  as  he  saw,  the  essential  dynam- 

1  Page  33. 


254  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

ics  of  Social  Christianity.  "Ideas,"  Dr.  Gladden 
terms  these  dynamic  truths,  and  such  they  are. 
Yet  they  are  also  far  more  and  greater  than 
ideas.  Behind  their  nature  as  idea  lies  their 
potency  as  consciousness,  experience.  Ideas  of 
this  sort  could  not  come  into  existence  except 
through  a  greater  reality  beneath  them,  requir- 
ing intellectual  apprehension  and  interpreta- 
tion. The  study  of  this  underlying  social  con- 
sciousness, psychologically  and  metaphysically, 
involves  a  deep  probing  of  the  very  roots  of  our 
being.  It  takes  us  inevitably  into  the  realm  of 
personality,  human  and  divine,  where  we  have 
to  face  the  problem  —  with  which  in  its  practi- 
cal aspect  Dr.  Gladden  dealt  so  wisely  —  of 
the  nature  of  society,  including  the  relation  of 
the  individual  person  to  other  persons.  In  this 
rea-lm  it  is  becoming  clearer  that  —  as  he  pointed 
out  —  the  individual  person  is  not  to  be  set 
over  against  society,  as  if  their  nature  and  in- 
terests conflicted.  Rather  does  each  involve  the 
other  as  the  very  condition  of  its  existence. 

XII 

Out  of  this  deepening  social  consciousness 
there  have  emerged  a  Social  Gospel  and  a  Social 
Theology.  The  Social  Theology  is  not  so  much 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  255 

a  new  set  of  doctrines  as  a  new  emphasis  and  a 
deeper  interpretation  of  original  Christian  doc- 
trines —  such  as  the  Divine  Fatherhood,  human 
brotherhood,  incarnation,  sin,  atonement  —  in 
the  light  of  an  intensified  social  consciousness. 
The  movement  into  the  social  theology  may 
be  made  from  either  of  two  points  of  approach. 
The  first  is  that  which,  as  it  relates  to  the  indi- 
vidual, the  Greek  theology  seized, —  the  kin- 
ship of  God  and  man,  leading  to  a  quickened 
realization  of  the  Divine  Life  in  social  relations. 
The  other  is  that  which  governed  the  Latin 
theology, —  the  alienation  of  man  from  God,  or 
the  fact  of  sin,  the  consciousness  which  leads  to 
the  penitential  return  of  man  to  the  right,  and 
the  recovery  of  righteousness  in  his  dealings 
with  his  fellows.  Both  of  these  truths  are  implicit 
in  Jesus'  individual-social  message,  "Repent, 
for  the  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand."  Repent. 
Why?  Because  the  kingdom  is  at  hand;  because 
the  Ideal  Life,  individual  and  social,  is  immi- 
nent. Here  are  both  incentives.  Yet  theology 
finds  it  difficult  to  hold  the  two  in  just  balance. 
One  or  the  other  is  apt  to  take  precedence  in 
the  construction  of  a  theology.  With  Washing- 
ton Gladden,  as  also  with  Francis  G.  Peabody,1 
1  See  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question. 


256  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Henry  C.  King,1  and  most  others  of  the  Ameri- 
can school  of  Social  Christianity,  the  ictus  has 
fallen  upon  the  kinship  of  God  with  men  as 
taught  by  Christ,  the  presence  of  the  ideal  in 
the  human  soul,  the  conviction  that  society 
itself  is  instituted  by  God  and  will  respond  to 
the  appeal  of  the  social  idea.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  approach  from  the  consciousness  of  sin, 
from  the  manifest  prevalence  of  injustice  and 
iniquity  in  human  relations  and  the  consequent 
need  of  social  redemption,  is  that  which  that 
great  and  noble  prophet  of  a  new  social  order, 
Professor  Rauschenbusch,  adopted  in  his  very 
searching  and  significant  volume  "A  Theology 
for  the  Social  Gospel."  a 

Reflection  shows  that  both  of  these  comple- 
mentary truths  are  urgently  needed  in  a  social 
theology,  as  in  an  individual  theology.  Out  of 
our  consciousness  of  the  Divine  and  of  the  ties 
that  bind  us  to  one  another  flow  those  realiza- 
tions of  Divine  Fatherhood  and  human  brother- 
hood which,  as  they  arouse  faith  and  hope  and 
love,  work  mighty  changes  in  the  social  order; 
and  out  of  the  consciousness  of  sin  and  social 

1  See  Theology  and  the  Social  Consciousness. 

3  An  admirable  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Rauschenbusch 
has  been  published  by  the  Rochester  Theological  Seminary 
(Rochester  Theological  Seminary  Bulletin,  November,  1918). 


WASHINGTON  GLADDEN  257 

injustice  comes  the  conviction  of  wrong-doing, 
producing  a  repentance  which  leads  to  the  cor- 
rection of  social  abuses  and  the  establishment 
of  a  new  and  better  social  order. 

The  social  theology  works  for  the  purifica- 
tion and  reconstruction  of  theology  as  a  whole. 
In  the  deepened  sense  of  social  solidarity,  the 
artificial,  unhuman,  merely  formal  doctrines 
fade  —  sovereignty,  decrees,  election,  static 
revelation,  substitutionary  atonement,  salva- 
tion as  escape  from  punishment,  special  provi- 
dence; while  the  great  humanizing  doctrines  — 
Fatherhood,  brotherhood,  racial  solidarity,  in- 
carnation, love — suffering,  universal  providence, 
the  kingdom  of  God  —  stand  out  in  nobler  out- 
line and  assume  a  more  vital  meaning.  Theology 
moves  into  a  deeper  as  well  as  a  broader  inter- 
pretation of  "the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man," 
when  man  is  understood  in  the  light  not  only  of 
his  individual  but  of  his  social  nature. 


CHAPTER   VII 

NEWMAN  SMYTH  AND  LATER  REPRESENTA- 
TIVES OF  THEOLOGICAL  PROGRESS 


1843. 

1859- 
1864. 
1865. 

[  1867. 

1868. 

1870-75. 

1871. 

1876-82. 

1881. 

1882-1907. 
1895. 

1899. 
1908. 


1914. 


NEWMAN    SMYTH 

June  25.     Birth  at  Brunswick,  Me. 

Entered  Bowdoin  College,  graduating  in  1863. 

Enlisted  in  i6th  Maine  Volunteers. 

Entered  Andover  Theological  Seminary,  graduat- 
ing in  1867. 

Pastor  of  Mission  Chapel,  Providence,  R.I. 

Ordained  to  the  Congregational  Ministry. 

Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church, 
Bangor,  Me. 

June  20.    Married  Anna  M.  Ayer  of  Bangor,  Me. 

Pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Quincy,  111. 

Received  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  New 
York  University. 

Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,  New 
Haven,  Conn. 

Received  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Yale 
University. 

Fellow  of  Yale  University. 

Became  Pastor  Emeritus  of  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church,  New  Haven. 

Nathanael  W.  Taylor  lecturer,  Yale  University. 

Chairman  of  a  deputation  which  visited  Non- 
Anglican  Churches  of  Great  Britain  in  the 
interest  of  a  World  Conference  of  Christian  Faith 
and  Order. 

Member  of  the  Commission  of  Comity,  Federation, 
and  Unity,  National  Council  Congregational 
Churches. 


CHAPTER  VII 

NEWMAN  SMYTH  AND  LATER  REPRESENT- 
ATIVES  OF  THEOLOGICAL  PROGRESS 

CLOSELY  associated  with  the  Andover  leaders, 
and  sharing  their  cause  as  if  one  of  them,  was  a 
theologian  author  and  preacher  who,  having 
seen  the  Andover  controversy  through,  has 
continued  to  exercise  large  influence  in  the  ex- 
pansion of  religious  thought  both  in  this  coun- 
try and  in  England, —  Newman  Smyth.  Al- 
though, being  a  younger  brother  of  Egbert  C. 
Smyth,  he  enjoyed  the  same  scholarly  and  spir- 
itual environment,  he  found  his  entrance  into 
the  problems  of  theology  and  his  place  of  ser- 
vice by  a  somewhat  different  pathway.  A  brief 
narrative  of  the  progress  of  his  thought  and 
experience  as  he  has  generously  given  it  to  the 
writer,  at  his  request,  follows  in  his  own  words : x 


Early  in  my  college  life  I  arrived  at  the  problems 
of  modern  philosophy.  Without  such  adequate 
instruction  as  is  now  given  in  academic  courses,  I 

*  Written  under  date  of  March  6,  1918. 


262  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

read  for  myself  and  became,  perhaps,  a  premature 
philosopher.  Consequently  I  soon  found  myself 
foundering  beyond  my  depth.  I  began  with  Scottish 
philosophy,  reading  the  Lectures  of  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  and  becoming  familiar  with  the  theories 
of  knowledge  of  Stewart  and  Reid.  I  was  intent  on 
finding  what  is  real.  Indeed  one  of  my  earliest  recol- 
lections as  a  boy  is  that  I  was  lying  one  day  under  a 
tree,  watching  the  great  white  clouds  passing  across 
the  sky,  and  wondering  what  there  could  be  if  after 
all  there  was  nothing.  I  think  this  desire  to  seek  and 
to  find  reality  never  has  left  me.  Then  I  met  with 
Hamilton's  theory  of  the  relativity  of  knowledge, 
his  essay  on  the  "Unconditioned,"  and  found  myself 
resisting  it,  but  utterly  unable  to  escape  from  it.  In 
the  senior  year  an  important  part  of  the  regular 
course  of  studies  carried  me  into  Paley's  "Evi- 
dences," and,  most  important,  to  Butler's  "Anal- 
ogy." The  former  opened  the  way  for  me  into  the 
scientific  studies  which  I  have  been  interested  in 
ever  since;  but  the  study  of  Butler's  "Analogy"  was 
for  me  a  formative  and  permanent  influence.  It 
became  to  me  a  unifying  method  of  thought  to  be 
followed  in  all  directions  so  far  as  possible.  It  seemed 
to  reach  down  towards  the  fundamental  principles, 
the  final  reality  which  I  would  know.  I  recovered 
enough  from  Hamilton  and  Mansel's  religious  appli- 
cation of  his  view  of  the  Unconditioned,  to  write  as 
my  graduating  essay  something  on  the  ambitious 
title  of  the  Absolute.  I  regret  that  I  have  lost  that 
early  contribution  to  philosophy,  as  I  wonder  how 
wise  or  otherwise  it  might  seem  now;  but  I  remem- 
ber that  it  held  fast  to  the  reality  of  knowledge.  At 
the  same  time  Darwinism  was  in  the  early  stage  of 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  263 

its  controversy  with  a  theology  that  comprehended  it 
not;  and  Herbert  Spencer's  "First  Principles"  led 
me  somewhat  further  towards  the  Ultimate  Reality, 
and  then  left  it  as  the  unknown. 

From  these  college  studies  and  philosophical  be- 
ginnings I  soon  passed  into  service  in  the  army. 
There  one  stood  face  to  face  with  realities.  Men 
showed  what  they  really  were.  I  think  my  year  of 
service  in  the  army  was  one  of  the  best  years  of 
preparation  for  my  ministry, —  and  of  theological 
preparation  for  it.  It  formed  the  habit  of  thinking 
in  contact  with  the  realities  of  life.  I  came  to  doubt 
any  thinking  that  was  not  thought  out  in  the  midst 
of  men,  in  daily  and  close  contact  with  human  life. 
It  was  probably  this  instinct  that  made  me  adverse 
to  accepting  any  academic  chair,  and  choosing,  al- 
though seemingly  contrary  to  natural  professorial 
tendencies,  to  decline  offers  in  which  I  might  have 
had  more  opportunity  for  leisurely  and  scholarly 
pursuit  of  the  philosophical  and  theological  inqui- 
ries for  which  I  had  a  natural  inclination.  Notwith- 
standing these  advantages  I  preferred  to  think  my 
thought  out  in  the  pastorate.  I  suppose  I  had  come 
instinctively  to  feel  that  only  by  being  compelled  by 
my  daily  work  to  keep  in  contact  with  the  human, 
could  I  come  into  touch  with  Reality. 

I  graduated  from  the  army  into  the  Theological 
Seminary.  It  was  certainly  a  sudden  transition  from 
Appomattox  Court  House,  where  I  heard  the  last 
guns  fired  by  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  to  a  stu- 
dent's room  in  Andover  Seminary.  The  two  teachers 
of  influence  then  were  Professor  Park  in  theology 
and  Professor  Phelps  in  homiletics.  To  the  latter  I 
owe  much.  His  lectures,  whatever  their  subject,  were, 


264  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

always  a  lesson  in  literary  style.  It  was  a  pleasure 
to  listen  to  his  perfect  use  of  English.  No  student 
could  come  from  his  class  room  without  despising  a 
meretricious  or  cheap  use  of  language  for  the  sake 
of  popularizing  the  truth.  His  lectures  were  a  course 
in  English  literature  as  well  as  in  homiletics,  and 
while  the  sermon  was  to  him  always  a  vital  thing, 
it  was  well  that  he  made  it  so  clear  to  his  classes,  by 
his  own  mastery  of  style  as  well  as  his  instructions, 
that  to  be  a  good  sermon  even  for  common  people 
it  need  not  be  an  imperfect  literary  composition  or 
offensive  to  good  taste.  The  cheapness  of  conde- 
scension and  adoption  of  vulgarities  of  speech, 
which  are  sometimes  regarded  as  necessary  to  pop- 
ular effect,  were  to  him  worthy  of  pointed  sarcasm. 
His  own  sermons,  which  I  listened  to  when  a  boy 
at  Phillips  Academy  and  later,  had  a  quickening  and 
spiritual  interest  which  I  have  remembered  grate- 
fully through  the  years. 

Professor  Park  was  generally  regarded  as  a  great 
public  orator,  and  it  was  customary  to  consider  a 
sermon  from  him  as  an  event.  But  less  and  less  did 
his  influence  over  my  thinking  prevail.  His  lectures 
were  like  an  exercise  in  theological  gymnastics,  and 
never  dull.  But  very  soon,  among  a  few  of  us,  his 
dialectics  aroused  a  spirit  of  criticism.  He  was  master 
of  dialectical  skill  not  only  in  presenting  his  own 
propositions,  but  also  in  quick  and  often  appar- 
ently crushing  reply  when  we  ventured  objections. 
One  of  his  favorite  methods  with  us  was  to  maintain 
that  we  agreed  with  him  but  did  not  know  how  to 
express  ourselves.  He  seemed  to  me  at  times  to  re- 
semble one  of  the  Greek  sophists;  but  we  were  not 
sufficient  adepts  in  the  Socratic  method  to  put  him 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  265 

to  confusion.  Nevertheless  our  reason  was  less  and 
less  satisfied  with  his  method  of  reasoning.  It  seemed 
to  us  that  he  shaped  Edwards  to  conform  to  his 
system  of  New  England  theology  rather  than  lead- 
ing us  to  understand  Edwards'  thought.  We  often 
thought  that  he  first  insinuated  his  conclusion  into 
his  definitions  and  then  with  triumphant  logic  de- 
duced them  from  them.  To  those  of  the  class,  how- 
ever, who  were  satisfied  with  being  sent  out  equipped 
with  a  complete  system  of  theology  and  Biblical 
proof-texts,  for  which  a  net  had  been  dragged 
through  the  whole  Bible,  his  lectures  were  all  that 
could  be  desired  and  they  had  furnished  them  a 
system  of  theology  from  which  sermons  could  be 
drawn  without  any  too  anxious  thought  for  the 
morrow  on  which  they  should  have  to  preach.  It 
seemed  to  be  Professor  Park's  ambition  to  become 
the  final  exponent  of  the  New  England  theology. 
As  a  formal  system  it  may  almost  be  said  that  he 
did  finish  it;  and  it  was  buried  with  him.  His  lectures 
have  never  been  published,  his  life  of  Edwards  upon 
which  he  was  said  to  have  been  engaged  was  never 
written;  and  the  pupils  who  once  went  forth  as  his 
favorite  disciples  have  now  almost  all  been  gathered 
to  the  fathers.  But  Edwards'  intellectual  honesty, 
his  profound  searching  for  truth  abides  in  our 
theological  schools. 

I  suppose  that  it  was  my  early  and  instinctive 
longing  to  know  what  is  real  that  led  me  at  first 
to  criticise  and  then  to  abandon  Professor  Park's 
complete  system  of  theological  definitions  and 
reasonings.  As  a  consequence  I  found  myself  going 
back  to  Augustine  in  his  searching  of  truth  and  to 
Plato  in  his  ultimate  ideas.  The  mystics  attracted 


266  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

me,  and  Neo-Platonism  opened  interesting  though 
disappointing  inquiries.  But  the  prevalent  New 
England  theology,  although  in  many  of  its  funda- 
mental ideas  appearing  to  me  to  be  valid,  as  a  whole 
seemed  to  me  (especially  as  taught  by  Professor  Park) 
to  be  an  orthodox  rationalism;  and  rationalism  of  any 
kind  did  not  satisfy  me.  My  brother's  lectures  on  the 
Ante-Nicene  development  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ, 
led  me  into  a  truer  conception  of  the  possible  devel- 
opment of  theology  —  a  growing,  living,  expanding 
development  —  which  has  since  then  become  more 
scientifically  apprehended  in  my  own  thinking. 

After  preaching  for  two  years  in  a  mission  chapel 
in  Providence,  R.I.,  declining  offers  for  permanent 
settlement,  I  went  to  Europe  and  spent  a  winter  in 
Germany  for  the  sake  of  a  period  of  further  study 
and  reconsideration  of  my  theological  preparation. 
I  count  it  as  one  of  the  marked  points  in  my  theo- 
logical education  when  Professor  Tholuck  called  my 
attention  to  a  small  volume  of  lectures  by  a  German 
scholar  on  "  Biblical  Theology."  I  had  never  before 
heard  of  any  such  title  or  method  of  investigation 
throughout  my  proof-text  period  of  education  and 
revolt  at  Andover.  I  had  been  taught  how  New 
England  theology,  versus  the  Princeton  theology, 
was  regarded  by  the  prophets  and  apostles.  I  had 
heard  nothing  of  Biblical  theology.  It  opened  to  me 
a  new  lead,  which  I  hastened  to  follow.  The  guide- 
posts  along  the  way  were  then  marked  by  German 
signs,  and  for  a  few  years  my  theological  education 
had  to  be  entrusted  to  German  scholarship  and 
leadership.  Now,  one  need  not  go  abroad  to  find  out 
what  critical  Biblical  studies  and  Biblical  theology 
may  mean. 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  267 

On  my  return,  taking  up  my  ministry  in  the  new 
light  and  with  the  restored  assurance  of  faith,  which 
had  come  to  me  from  these  further  studies,  and 
especially  from  the  lectures  and  tutelage  of  Profes- 
sor Dorner,  I  wrote  my  first  book  on  "Religious 
Feeling."  It  was  the  first  attempt  to  formulate  what 
from  childhood  had  been  my  instinctive  desire  and 
later  my  dominating  conviction:  that  in  some  way 
we  are  in  touch  with  realities.  A  similar  attempt  in 
the  same  direction  was  made  in  an  article,  published 
in  "The  New  Englander,"  on  what  I  called  "The 
Dynamic  Theory  of  the  Intuitions."  Then  followed 
my  book  on  "Old  Faiths  in  New  Light."  Biblical 
criticism  has  advanced  far  beyond  the  beginnings 
which  were  then  available  to  me;  but  the  volume 
looked  for  the  reassurance  of  faith  in  that  direction. 
It  would  need  to  be  re-written  to  bring  it  up  to  the 
present  advanced  state  of  Biblical  and  historical 
knowledge,  and  I  have  preferred  consequently  to 
let  it  go  out  of  print. 

At  the  time  when  it  was  published  there  were 
many  among  the  younger  students  of  divinity,  both 
in  this  country  and  in  England,  who,  like  myself, 
had  found  no  resting  place  for  their  faith  in  the  cur- 
rent scholastic  teachings  of  the  theological  schools 
then  generally  prevalent,  who  however  had  not  had 
the  opportunity  given  to  me  to  feel  the  reinvigorat- 
ing  breath  of  the  new  time  already  beginning. 
Among  the  most  grateful  recollections  of  the  years 
that  are  past,  are  letters  of  appreciation  for  that 
volume  which  I  received  from  many  who  have  said 
that  it  came  to  them  at  a  crisis  in  their  own  religious 
development,  who  since  then  have  become  able 
thinkers  and  leaders  in  the  reconstruction  of  Chris- 


268  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

tian  teaching  in  freer  and  fruitful  adaptations  to  the 
knowledge  and  the  needs  of  the  present  age. 

After  this  the  same  thirst  for  the  real  led  me 
away  somewhat  from  the  field  of  theological  studies 
in  the  endeavor  to  find  what  could  be  known,  how 
near  towards  ultimates  we  might  come  through 
scientific  researches.  The  early  fruits  of  these  in- 
quiries in  what  has  now  become  the  voluminous 
department  of  physiological  psychology,  were  then 
accessible  and  a  better  understanding  of  Darwinism 
was  becoming  prevalent  in  Christian  apologetics. 
These  recent  investigations  and  every  advance  of 
science  towards  the  origin  of  things,  every  ascertained 
fact  far  out  on  the  border  line  between  the  known 
and  the  unknown,  had  for  me  a  fascinating  attrac- 
tion, as  indeed  pursuit  of  spiritual  truth  in  this 
direction  has  been  to  me  since  —  much  more  than 
dogmatic  theology  —  my  chief  study  and  delight. 
But  in  this  way  one  cannot  make  haste.  Faith  must 
follow  the  will  to  know.  Enough  that  from  what  is 
known  it  may  follow  fearlessly  whatever  advance 
science  may  make  into  the  unknown. 

The  point  where  a  conflict  between  conflicting 
forces  comes  to  an  issue  may  be  quite  accidental. 
The  fact  that  they  meet  and  that  the  new  tendencies 
of  thought  or  life  contend  for  the  mastery  is  the 
important  event.  Such  a  conflict,  threatening  with 
division  the  Congregational  church,  arose  in  the 
Andover  issue  and  the  conduct  of  the  American 
Board.  It  was  entirely  accidental  so  far  as  at  the 
beginning  my  own  responsibility  for  the  initiation 
of  it  was  concerned.  Without  previous  intimation  or 
desire,  I  found  myself  chosen  by  the  Andover  Trus- 
tees to  the  chair  of  theology  which  Professor  Park 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  269 

had  left  vacant.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  for- 
eign to  my  own  purpose  or  expectation.  The  contro- 
versy which  arose  over  it  centered  upon  a  point 
which  to  my  own  thinking  was  quite  secondary  and 
merely  incidental  in  its  presentation  by  me.  I  had 
been  challenged  by  a  club  of  unbelievers,  and  in 
response  had  invited  them  to  hear  me  speak  con- 
cerning some  of  our  chief  Christian  doctrines.  They 
constituted  the  audience  primarily  to  whom  a  series 
of  sermons  was  addressed,  taken  down  by  a  stenogra- 
pher and  subsequently  published  under  the  title, 
"The  Orthodox  Theology  of  To-day." 

The  action  of  the  Andover  Trustees  had  met,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  with  no  opposition  until  it  so 
happened  that  Dr.  Alden,  a  Secretary  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board,  having  been  led  by  some  inscrutable 
providence  to  read  such  a  book  as  mine,  had  his 
attention  arrested  and  fixed  upon  a  passage  of  some 
two  pages,  in  which  I  had  suggested  the  possibility 
of  some  redemptive  grace  for  those  after  death  who 
had  never  known  Jesus  Christ  in  their  earthly  life. 
Together  with  Professor  Park,  he  and  some  others 
made  that  a  decisive  issue  between  the  old  ortho- 
doxy and  the  oncoming  new  thought.  "The  Congre- 
gationalist"  opposed  the  confirmation  by  the  Vis- 
itors of  the  Trustees'  election. 

The  passage  thus  lifted  into  a  controversial  issue 
was  not  a  doctrinal  position,  put  by  myself  in  sys- 
tematic relations  with  an  exposition  of  dogmatic 
teaching;  it  was  an  incidental  suggestion  offered  as 
a  possible  answer  to  objections  of  a  company  of 
unbelievers.  As  such,  whether  justifiable  or  not,  it 
should  have  been  weighed  as  matter  belonging  to 
Christian  apologetics  rather  than  as  a  doctrine  in 


270  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

a  system  of  beliefs.  No  science  can  advance  without 
preliminary  working  theories,  which  later  may  or 
may  not  become  part  of  accepted  scientific  deter- 
minations. To  deny  to  theology  the  same  liberty  of 
inquiry  and  advance  would  be  to  take  from  it  the 
very  life  of  the  Spirit  of  truth.  At  this  time  my  own 
mind  was  preoccupied  with  questions  that  were 
much  more  fundamental  and  far-reaching.  The 
whole  field  of  critical  and  Biblical  investigation  had 
then  been  opened  for  scholarly  research;  I  was  look- 
ing forward  to  the  questions  which  would  need  re- 
statement in  that  direction.  Moreover,  the  philo- 
sophical and  scientific  conceptions  and  assumptions 
underlying  the  received  theology  were  being  shaken 
or  swept  away.  The  work  of  constructive  theology 
seemed  to  me  to  lie  open,  inviting  Christian  thinkers 
and  leaders  in  that  field,  and  the  laborers  were  then 
few. 

The  controversy  which  had  thus  incidentally  and 
accidentally  arisen,  so  far  as  I  was  concerned,  soon 
developed  into  a  wider  issue,  and  became  a  conflict 
for  the  liberty  of  young  men  especially  who  had 
applied  for  missionary  service  under  the  American 
Board,  and  indeed  for  the  right  of  some  of  our  most 
approved  missionaries,  such  as  Mr.  Robert  Hume, 
to  continue  in  their  Christian  devotion.  Behold  how 
little  matter  was  enough  to  kindle  so  great  a  fire  — 
but  there  was  enough  dry  timber  and  dead  wood  in 
theology  then  to  make  a  great  conflagration.  In  this 
controversy  for  liberty  of  thought  I  took  deep  inter- 
est and  did  my  part.  But  the  conception  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  grace  after  death  I  was  quite  content  to 
leave  to  take  care  of  itself  in  the  field  of  religious 
thought.  The  Andover  professors,  themselves  tak- 


NEWMAN,  SMYTH  271 

ing  up  the  cause  of  liberty  of  thought,  did  whatever 
was  necessary  to  set  that  possibility  in  the  light  of 
a  Christian  conception  of  God  and  His  grace  through 
Christ. 

The  larger  inquiry,  so  far  as  the  New  England 
theology  was  concerned,  which  seemed  to  me  to  be 
necessary  for  the  adaptation  of  Christian  theology 
to  the  knowledge  and  thought  of  the  coming  day,  I 
endeavored  to  present  in  an  article  published  by 
me  shortly  after  the  question  of  my  Andover  elec- 
tion was  settled,  in  "The  Princeton  Review"  for 
May,  1882.  It  was  entitled  "Orthodox  Rationalism." 
No  mention  was  made  in  it  of  the  subordinate  con- 
troversial question  concerning  future  probation.  But 
I  took  issue  with  the  entire  method,  philosophical 
and  religious,  underlying  the  theological  systems, 
from  confinement  within  whose  dogmatic  defini- 
tions I  had  happily  escaped  with  my  faith.  It  was 
my  only  answer  to  all  the  attacks  which  my  own 
efforts  had  brought  down  upon  me;  and  it  was  con- 
structive in  its  aim,  and  as  I  then  believed  conserva- 
tive of  the  very  vitalities  and  spiritual  power  of  the 
faith  of  the  Church.  Upon  re-reading  it,  after  the 
passage  of  all  these  years,  I  would  subscribe  to  it, 
perhaps  more  than  to  any  one  thing  which  I  have 
written  of  the  method  and  spirit  and  essential  vital- 
ity of  my  faith  and  lifelong  search  after  the  realities 
human  and  divine  of  this  universe  in  which  our  day 
here  on  earth  is  spent.  Later  efforts  have  served  to 
deepen,  to  enlarge,  to  render  more  dynamic  the 
principles  then  stated.  I  have  learned  to  appreciate 
and  to  value  more  what  I  now  call  Scientific  Spir- 
ituality.1 

1  See  the  last  lecture  of  Constructive  Natural  Theology. 


272  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Of  late  years  my  studies  have  led  me  to  appreciate 
the  need  of  a  more  scientific  and  constructive  nat- 
ural theology  as  a  condition  and  means  for  further 
reconstruction  of  dogmatic  theology.  My  later  books 
have  consequently  been  devoted  to  this  task.  The 
older  New  England  theology  made  at  least  this 
contribution  to  religious  thought;  it  demanded  sys- 
tematic construction  of  the  existing  material  of 
knowledge  and  faith.  Edwards  was  a  great  con- 
structor of  the  materials  given  to  his  thought  and 
he  was  a  lifelong  searcher  after  truth  as  his  observa- 
tions from  time  to  time  written  down  on  scattered 
pieces  of  paper  show.  In  his  treatise  also  on  the 
"Spiritual  Affections'*  a  principle  of  vitalizing  power 
may  be  felt,  which  has  never  been  lost  even  in  the 
logical  system-building  of  New  England  theologians. 


II 

The  article  to  which  Dr.  Smyth  refers  is  a 
luminous  exposition  of  the  New  Theology  and 
stands  beside  the  Introduction  of  "The  Freedom 
of  Faith"  and  the  Introduction  of  "Progressive 
Orthodoxy"  as  one  of  the  best  statements 
of  the  purpose  and  methods  of  the  movement.1 
It  opens  with  the  same  pertinent  contrast 
between  Lessing  and  Schleiermacher  already 
employed  by  his  brother  and  emphasizes, 
though  in  an  entirely  independent  manner,  the 

'See  also  "The  Old  Theology  and  the  New,"  by  William 
Adams  Brown,  Harvard  Theological  Review,  vol.  IX,  no.  I. 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  273 

superiority  of  intuition  to  reliance  upon  mere 
reason, —  the  latter  being  the  method  which, 
with  telling  effect,  is  shown  to  be  that  of  ortho- 
doxy as  certainly  as  that  of  skepticism.  The 
appeal  away  from  a  barren  rationalism  is,  how- 
ever, not  to  a  one-sided  mysticism  but  to  an 
apprehension  of  spiritual  truth  on  the  part  of 
the  whole  man  as  contrasted  with  an  exclusive 
dependence  upon  the  intellect.  This  requires  a 
new  psychological  method,  one  which  recog- 
nizes that  "man  is  a  spiritual  unity,  one  living 
whole,  to  be  known  and  understood  in  relation 
to  the  totality  of  his  environment."  x  This  is 
BushnelPs  contention,  and  Munger's  as  well, 
reasserted  and  amplified.  Such  a  method  calls, 
also,  for  the  full  recognition  of  the  law  of  devel- 
opment. "We  need  for  Christian  theology  a 
psychology  which  shall  be  true  to  the  actual 
processes  of  man's  life,  which  shall  seek  to  under- 
stand consciousness,  not  by  verbal  dissection 
of  it,  but  by  following  its  living  development."3 
The  knowledge  of  God  gained  thus  is  not 
that  of  a  God  whose  existence  is  proved  by  the 
rationalizing  intellect.  "A  God  proved  by  us 
would  be  a  God  made  by  us."  "God  must  first 

x"  Orthodox  Rationalism,"    Tht    Princeton    Review    (May, 
1882),  p.  296.  >Ibid.,  p.  299. 


274  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

lay  hold  of  us  before  we  can  lay  hold  of  him."  f 
Such  a  God  is  apprehended  not  by  any  one 
faculty  but  by  the  whole  man,  in  an  exercise  of 
faith.  "Unbelief  is  inclined  to  regard  faith  as  a 
certain  relation  of  mind  to  Christian  ideas 
rather  than  as  a  relation  of  the  whole  man 
through  the  person  of  Christ  to  the  whole  God."2 
Christianity  is  denned  as  "love  entering  into 
the  life  of  the  world  and  redeeming  it  from  its 
own  undoing."  "The  incarnation  is  the  final 
and  perfect  relation  of  the  whole  God  to  the 
whole  universe."  3 

The  true  method  in  theology  is  further  de- 
scribed, in  this  article,  as  "dynamical  rather 
than  statical."  "It  seeks  to  interpret  results 
in  mind  and  history  by  following  with  patient 
investigation  the  processes  of  life  through 
which  they  have  come  to  be  what  they  are."  4 
It  is  also  "thoroughly  ethical."  "Being  thus 
dynamical  and  ethical,  it  must  also  be  in  the 
truest  sense  spiritual." 5  Theology,  that  is, 
springs  from  life,  the  life  of  faith.  "Faith  is  the 
true  life  manifesting  itself,  and  bearing  witness 
that  it  is  true,  in  the  life  of  man."  6 

1  The  Princeton  Review  (May,  1882),  p.  299. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  304.  » Ibid.,  p.  308.  4  Ibid.,  p.  309. 

^ Ibid.,  p.  3 1 1 .  6  Ibid.,  p.  312. 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  275 

in 

The  principles  and  methods  thus  laid  down 
have  been  consistently  followed  in  all  of  Dr. 
Smyth's  publications,  of  which  the  best  known 
are  "Old  Faiths  in  New  Light"  (1879)  and 
"The  Orthodox  Theology  of  To-day"  (1881). 
The  intuitional  character  of  his  thought  is 
embodied  in  his  first  volume,  "The  Religious 
Feeling"  (1877),  in  his  volume  of  sermons  "The 
Reality  of  Faith"  (1884),  opening  as  it  does 
with  the  sermon  "Faith  a  Preparation  for 
Sight,"  and  in  a  later  volume,  "Personal 
Creeds"  (1890).  It  is  significant  to  find  him,  in 
the  statement  above,  going  back,  as  did  Egbert 
Smyth,  to  the  intuitional  and  affectional  ele- 
ment in  Jonathan  Edwards  as  the  most  essen- 
tial and  attractive  factor  in  his  theology.  Simi- 
lar emphasis  upon  intuition  and  experience 
characterizes  most  of  the  New  Theology  lead- 
ers from  Bushnell  on,  as  we  have  found.  The 
ethical  emphasis  appears  throughout  his  work 
and  is  brought  to  a  focus  in  "Christian  Ethics" 
(1892),  a  volume  in  the  International  Theologi- 
cal Library  which  has  long  taken  rank  as  one 
of  the  leading  works  on  the  subject.  Thorough- 
ness, insight,  balance,  and  wide  acquaintance 


276  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

with  the  literature  of  the  subject  characterize 
this  treatise.  It  is  surprising  that  amid  the 
duties  of  a  large  parish  so  ample  and  careful  a 
discussion  of  this  difficult  subject  could  have 
been  prepared. 

The  psychological  aspects  and  implications  of 
theology  are  discussed  with  great  thoroughness 
in  the  volume  "The  Meaning  of  Personal  Life" 
(1916).  Here  emerges  again  the  concentration 
of  interest  upon  personality  that  characterizes 
the  New  Theology  school.  Great  progress  has 
been  made  in  the  last  twenty  years  in  the  study 
both  of  psychology  and  of  personality,  but  the 
gulf  left  between  the  two  has  been  wide.  No  vol- 
ume has  so  far  succeeded  in  bridging  it  as  this. 
Dr.  Smyth  is  hampered  by  no  theological  in- 
hibitions. He  has  made  himself  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  the  problems  not  only  of  psy- 
chology but  of  physiology  as  they  bear  upon  the 
question  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  personal 
life.  It  is  therefore  with  no  theologically  cramped 
hand  that  he  traces  "the  natural  history  of 
personality  from  the  behavior  of  lowest  organ- 
isms along  the  lines  of  life's  struggle  and 
ascent  up  to  the  self-conscious  conduct  of  man." 
Nor  is  it  by  mere  predisposition  that  he  finds 
"an  energy  active  in  every  moment  of  our 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  277 

consciousness,  and  known  most  intimately  and 
ultimately  in  the  exercise  of  our  will,  which 
nevertheless  eludes  definition,  yet  abides  as 
indestructible  reality  and  affirmation  of  our- 
selves." ' 

No  chapter  in  the  volume  is  more  contributive 
than  that  upon  "Personal  Identity."  In  it  the 
relation  of  personality  to  nature  is  thus  discern- 
ingly described: 

Herein  appears  the  unique  marvel  of  personality; 
it  becomes  conscious  of  itself  as  individual  and  it 
individualizes  its  world;  it  is  the  one  discovering 
itself  among  the  many.  In  the  midst  of  uniformities 
of  nature  moving  at  will  on  the  plane  of  natural 
necessities,  weaving  the  pattern  of  its  ideas  through 
the  warp  of  natural  laws,  runs  the  personal  life.  On 
the  same  plane  and  amid  these  uniformities,  yet 
itself  a  sphere  of  being  of  another  order;  in  it,  yet 
disentangled  from  it,  and  having  its  center  in  itself, 
it  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being,  breaking  no 
thread  of  nature's  weaving,  subject  to  its  own  law 
and  manifesting  a  dynamic  of  its  own.3 

Analyzing  the  nature  of  personal  individuality, 
the  author  finds  in  it  these  distinctive  elements : 
(i)  "It  asserts  its  worth  to  itself,"  (2)  it  pos- 
sesses "conscious  solitariness  of  personal  being," 
(3)  it  manifests  "incalculably,"  (4)  it  "evinces 

1  The  Meaning  of  Personal  Life,  p.  168. 
'Ibid.,  p.  173. 


278  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

its  unique  character  by  its  selective  formation 
of  its  own  proper  environment,"  (5)  it  exhibits 
"increase  of  psychical  energy  in  personal  life." 
Man,  the  incomprehensible  yet  interpretative 
interloper  in  nature,  "is  become  actor  and 
spectator  of  his  own  life,  the  final  judge  of  all 
things  from  which  he  came  forth,  himself 
nature  at  her  best,  yet  holding  himself  the  heir 
of  a  realm  of  higher  worth."  x 

Thus  distinctly  and  unqualifiedly  Dr.  Smyth 
recognizes  the  duality  as  well  as  the  unity  of 
existence,  constituted  as  it  is  of  both  nature 
and  spirit.  "We  have  then,  directly  confronting 
us,  the  dualism  between  the  physiological 
system  and  the  psychical  constant  in  the  unity 
of  personal  life."  3  The  relation  between  them 
he  regards  as  that  of  interaction.  They  are  not 
in  essential  conflict  but  capable  of  true  harmony. 
The  nature  of  both  matter  and  spirit  "may 
admit  of  sympathetic  rapport  or  effective  adapta- 
tions to  each  other  that  we  cannot  clearly 
apprehend,  but  which  we  recognize  as  actual  in 
experience." 3  Upon  this  intimacy,  implying 
unity,  he  dwells  with  especial  earnestness: 
"Not  the  denial  of  evolution  but  unbelief  in  the 

1  The  Meaning  of  Personal  Life,  p.  191. 
*Ibid.,  p.  116.  » Ibid.,  p.  124. 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  279 

unity  of  the  natural  and  the  spiritual  is  the 
vitiating  falsehood  alike  of  science  and  of  faith. 
It  were  indeed  a  betrayal  of  personality  to 
doubt  the  existence  of  either  in  the  reality  of 
the  whole.  Let  either  vanish  and  the  other 
goes." *  This  is  both  true  discrimination  and  true 
catholicity.  In  this  direction  and  this  alone, 
apparently,  lies  the  real  understanding  of  the 
intrinsic  character  and  true  development  of 
personality  in  its  relation  to  and  use  of  the 
environment  in  which  it  wins  its  way  to  au- 
tonomy. In  delineating  the  rise  and  progress  of 
the  personal  life,  he  attempts  to  trace  only  the 
natural  factors,  leaving  the  spiritual  almost 
untouched,  but  he  at  least  recognizes  that  both 
concur  in  the  process.2 

IV 

It  is  well  that  emphasis  was  thus  laid  by  Dn 
Smyth  upon  the  physical  and  psychical  con- 
comitants of  personality.  It  was  desirable  that 
a  mind  thoroughly  grounded  in  metaphysical 
and  theological  science  should  make  full  rec- 

1  The  Meaning  of  Personal  Life,  p.  192. 

8  See  my  Personality  and  the  Christian  Ideal,  chap.  XIV, 
and  "The  Pathway  of  Personality,"  The  Interpreter,  October, 
1912,  for  an  attempt  to  trace  the  rise  and  growth  of  personality 
on  the  ethical  and  spiritual  side. 


28o  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

ognition  of  the  empirical  factors  involved  in 
personality  and  hence  in  religion.  While  not 
himself  a  scientist  —  possessing  as  he  did  the 
discursive  rather  than  the  concentrative  mind 
• —  it  may  be  doubted  if  any  American  theo- 
logian has  entered  so  sympathetically  and  fully 
into  the  scientific  spirit  and  point  of  view  as 
has  Newman  Smyth.  It  has  been  a  peculiarly 
needed  and  timely  service.  While  the  artificial 
"conflict"  between  science  and  theology  has 
long  since  been  recognized  as  having  no  roots 
in  reality,  there  is  still  an  unhappy  lack  of  full 
rapport  between  the  two  complementary  pur- 
euits  of  truth.  This  being  the  case  it  was  for- 
tunate that  a  man  so  thoroughly  grounded  in 
philosophy  and  theology  should  take  pains  to 
understand  the  scientific  viewpoint  and  enter 
sympathetically  into  it.  He  was  one  of  the  first 
to  catch  the  significance  of  the  science  of  biology 
to  the  spiritual  order.  His  chivalrous  apprentice- 
ship in  a  biological  laboratory,  at  an  age  when 
most  theologians  settlodown  into  dogmatic  ruts, 
is  an  evidence  that  it  is  not  so  much  theology 
that  produces  dogmaticians  as  dogmaticians 
who  produce  theology.  Here  is  as  fine  a  piece 
of  vicarious  at-one-ment  as  any  science  can 
exhibit  in  its  relation  to  other  sciences.  The 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  >    281 

fruit  of  this  laboratory  work  and  of  his  wide 
and  careful  scientific  reading  and  reflection  is 
evidenced  in  three  volumes  of  distinctive 
worth:  "The  Place  of  Death  in  Evolution" 
(1897),  "Through  Science  to  Faith,"  and 
"Constructive  Natural  Theology."  The  second 
of  these  volumes  constituted  the  Lowell  lectures 
of  1902  and  the  third  the  Nathanael  W.  Taylor 
lectures  of  the  year  1913. 


"The  Place  of  Death  in  Evolution"  presents 
an  hypothesis  which,  whatever  place  may  have 
been  accorded  it  by  scientists,  offers  a  suggestive 
contribution  to  teleology.  It  is  that  death  ap- 
pears in  the  light  of  evolution  not  as  an  enemy 
but  as  an  ally  of  life,  disposing  of  outworn  organ- 
isms in  order  that  they  may  be  replaced  with 
others  more  numerous  and  more  highly  de- 
veloped. Death  works  —  as  the  thesis  is  re- 
stated by  him  in  a  later  volume  —  "for  the 
further  differentiation  and  enrichment  of  life. 
Subsequently  and  obviously  throughout  evolu- 
tion death  balances  the  book  of  account  between 
life's  ratio  of  fertility  and  its  means  of  living, 
We  owe  our  human  birth  to  death.  We  are  the 
living  children  of  a  world  that  has  died  for  us. 


282  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

If,  then,  we  may  win  from  nature  any  assurance 
that  death  itself  has  its  place  as  a  servant  in  the 
work  of  life,  that  it  has  its  reason  for  being  here 
in  a  principle  of  utility,  we  may  then  conceive 
that  death  may  also  be  discharged  from 
service  when  no  longer  useful;  that  death  may 
be  atrophied  in  the  highest  embodiment  of 
spiritual  personality."  x 

"Through  Science  to  Faith"  is  one  of  the  best 
spiritual  interpretations  of  evolution  that  has 
appeared  and  admirably  supplements  the  irenic 
influence  of  Joseph  LeConte's  "Evolution  and 
its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought"  (1887).  The 
discussion  includes  such  themes  as  "Evolution 
as  Revelation,"  "The  Fact  of  Direction  in 
Nature,"  "Moral  Character  of  Direction  in 
Nature,"  "Retrogression  in  Evolution  and 
Man's  Fall,"  "Restoration  in  Evolution,"  and 
"The  Prophetic  Value  of  Unfinished  Nature" 
—  all  treated  with  originality  and  insight. 

The  Taylor  lectures,  "Constructive  Natural 
Theology,"  form  a  brief  but  very  stimulating 
volume.  The  title  is  much  too  heavy,  if  not  too 
broad,  for  the  contents,  which  consist  of  il- 
luminating comments  upon  the  mutual  rela- 
tions and  services  of  the  scientific  mind  and  the 
1  Constructive  Natural  Theology,  p.  20. 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  283 

spiritual  mind.  After  the  complete  discomfiture 
of  the  earlier  presuppositions  and  methods  of 
"Natural  Theology"  it  is  doubtful  if  this  term 
—  so  closely  wedded  with  the  erection  of  reason 
into  a  substitute  for  revelation  —  can  be 
rescued  for  the  further  use  of  modern  theology. 
Yet,  however  it  be  christened,  Dr.  Smyth  has 
drawn  the  outline  of  a  new  natural  theology, 
reborn  into  both  the  spirit  of  science  and  the 
spirit  of  Christ.  The  especial  value  of  the  dis- 
cussion lies  in  its  interpretation  of  the  spiritual 
values  of  science  to  the  religious  mind.  These 
values  are  strikingly  summarized  in  the  final 
chapter,  entitled  "Scientific  Spirituality."  The 
chapter  opens  with  a  discerning  contrast  of  the 
scientific  and  mystical  temperaments  and 
habits.  After  drawing  the  contrast  between 
them,  the  lecturer  points  out  how  the  two 
"coexist  and  cowork  in  one's  thinking  and  liv- 
ing, however  they  may  be  dissected  in  our  analy- 
sis of  consciousness."  x  Not  only  do  they  coexist 
and  cowork  but  they  supplement  each  other. 
"To  be  true  alike  to  the  natural  and  the  spiritual 
is  to  keep  to  the  end  our  personal  integrity; 
nothing  less  is  perfect  simplicity."  a  This  con- 
clusion is  followed  by  a  description  of  the  service 
1  Constructive  Natural  Theology,  p.  in.  .,  a  Ibid.,  p.  ni.fc 


284  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

which  the  scientific  type  of  religious  experience 
—  for  Dr.  Smyth  claims  that  the  scientific 
spirit  is  a  form  of  religion  —  can  render  to 
"other  recognized  varieties  of  religious  ex- 
perience." This  it  does  in  imparting  "a  unifying 
sense  of  life,"  in  guarding  against  the  "par- 
tialness  and  exclusiveness"  of  other  types  of 
religious  experience,  in  promoting  "natural- 
ness" and  "unworldliness"  —  the  latter  in  the 
sense  of  unselfishness  —  "and  in  renewing  our 
faith  in  man's  survival  value."  The  character- 
ization is  open  to  criticism,  as  lacking  in  close 
discrimination  as  well  as  in  completeness,  but 
it  is  exceedingly  suggestive;  and  no  one  could 
have  done  it  on  the  whole  so  well  as  this 
sympathetic  and  synthetic  student  of  both 
theology  and  science. 

VI 

This  rapid  survey  of  Newman  Smyth's  con- 
tribution to  religious  thought  indicates  but  par- 
tially how  penetrative  and  varied  his  service 
has  been.  So  quick  and  sensitive  is  his  mind  to 
the  opening  of  new  fields  of  theological  expan- 
sion that  he  has  seen  and  made  use  of  oppor- 
tunity of  advance  where  others  saw  only  threat- 
ened disaster  and  retrenchment.  His  readiness 


NEWMAN  SMYTH  285 

in  seizing  and  occupying  these  new  fields  might 
have  exposed  him  to  the  charge  of  being  a  theo- 
logical opportunist;  but  a  more  careful  judg- 
ment shows  how  unjustifiable  such  a  judgment 
would  be.  His  has  been,  rather,  the  alertness  of 
one  whose  devotion  to  his  cause  gives  him  the 
courage  and  sagacity  to  preempt  at  once  new 
territory  in  behalf  of  the  higher  life  and  its 
Lord. 

This  prescience  of  mind,  rather  than  any 
shifting  of  interest  or  activity,  explains  the 
earnestness  with  which  he  has  given  himself  of 
late  years  to  a  spiritual  enterprise  where  the 
fields  are  white  to  the  harvest  and  the  laborers 
few, —  church  unity.  Here  he  has  selected  a  line 
of  action,  by  no  means  easy,  which  he  has  made 
almost  uniquely  his  own, —  that  of  bringing 
together  the  New  England  aristocratic  ecclesi- 
astical democracy,  Congregationalism,  and  the 
Southern  democratic  aristocracy,  Episcopa- 
lianism, —  realizing  that  if  these  two  can  be 
harmonized,  much  will  follow.  He  has  suffered 
many  repulses  and  much  misunderstanding  in 
this  crusade,  but  with  a  charity  and  persistence 
and  skill  worthy  of  a  great  cause  he  has  pressed 
his  purpose  untiringly  and  not  without  effect 
upon  the  future  of  church  unity.  Underlying 


286  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

this  endeavor  in  behalf  of  church  unity  there  is 
evident  the  mental  and  spiritual  urgency  and 
zeal  of  a  true  catholicity,  the  patient  devotion 
of  one  whose  sense  of  the  value  of  continuity  in 
organized  spiritual  life  will  not  permit  him  to 
take  easily  the  perpetuation  of  the  spirit  of 
schism  which  has  for  four  hundred  years  divided 
Western  Christendom.  This  appears  in  his 
striking  volume  "Passing  Protestantism  and 
Coming  Catholicism"  (1908),  in  which,  while 
he  overestimates  the  influence  of  Modernism, 
he  succeeds  in  making  clear  the  possibilities  of 
the  approach  toward  one  another  of  the  two 
great  Christian  bodies, —  provided  they  were  as 
disinterested  as  he  would  have  them  to  be. 

The  tireless  and  intelligent  devotion  to  the 
reunion  of  the  church  which  has  animated 
Newman  Smyth  in  his  later  years  reveals  anew 
the  outstanding  trait  which  has  characterized 
his  entire  life  and  thought,  the  union  of  the  syn- 
thetic and  constructive  spirit  with  the  free  and 
forward-reaching  spirit.  Such  a  union,  as  rich  as 
it  is  rare,  has  made  of  him  a  tireless  awakener 
and  leader  in  theological  advance  —  undaunted 
and  undeterred  —  with  "the  rays  of  morn  on 
his  white  shield  of  expectation." 


LATER  REPRESENTATIVES         287 

VII 

With  so  large  a  company  of  forward-looking 
minds  in  the  ranks  of  the  Pilgrim  heritage  co- 
operating in  constructing  a  freer  and  larger  the- 
ology, it  is  impossible  to  include  all  in  this 
study.  For  the  sake  of  completeness  it  would 
have  been  desirable  to  present  a  number  of 
other  progressive  thinkers,  to  a  few  of  whom 
only  I  will  briefly  refer  in  bringing  this  survey 
to  a  conclusion. 

One  of  the  most  outstanding  of  the  builders 
of  the  newer  religious  thought  in  America,  to 
whose  work  some  allusion  at  least  should  be 
made,  is  that  intrepid  herald  and  clarifier  of 
the  new  viewpoint,  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott.  The 
story  of  his  service,  in  season  and  out  of  season, 
for  the  cause  of  advancing  thought  has  been 
graphically  told  in  his  "Reminiscences"  (1915). 
His  mission  —  a  vital  and  valuable  one  —  has 
been,  above  that  of  any  other  American  writer 
perhaps,  that  of  interpreter,  popularizer  (in  the 
best  sense),  and  promulgator  of  the  newer  the- 
ology. For  this  he  has  shown  rare  gifts  and  the 
most  indefatigable  zeal.  His  unusual  tutelage  in 
the  law,  journalism,  and  the  pulpit  has  given 
him  a  singular  clarity  of  thought  and  of  expres- 


288  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

sion  and  a  consequently  wide  hearing.  From 
his  earlier  volumes  upon  the  Bible  and  upon 
evolution  to  his  "Letters  to  Unknown  Friends" 
and  his  "Knoll  Papers"  in  "The  Outlook"  he 
has  been  a  helper  of  the  perplexed  and  has 
cleared  the  pathway  of  difficulties  for  thousands 
of  unsettled  minds.  v 

Associated  with  Dr.  Abbott  on  the  staff  of 
"The  Outlook"  have  been  such  rare  progres- 
sives as  Hamilton  W.  Mabie,  Amory  H.  Brad- 
ford, and  James  M.  Whiton.  Of  Mr.  Mabie's 
discerning  literary  criticism,  theological  en- 
lightenment was  a  notable  accompaniment. 
Dr.  Bradford,  through  his  pulpit,  his  books, 
and  his  wide  personal  influence,  exercised  a 
large  and  liberalizing  effect  upon  religious 
thought.  Dr.  Whiton,  ever  since  the  publica- 
tion of  his  arresting  volume  "The  Gospel  of 
the  Resurrection"  (1881),  has  been  one  of  the 
recognized  leaders  of  freer  religious  thinking. 
He  has  directed  his  thought  in  later  years  more 
particularly  to  the  cosmical  and  biological  as- 
pects of  theology,  and  in  the  chapters  contrib- 
uted by  him  to  the  volume  of  theological  essays 
which  he  edited,  entitled  "Getting  Together" 
(1913),  he  has  made  suggestive  studies  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  divine  immanence.  In  his 


LATER  REPRESENTATIVES         289 

little  volume  "The  Life  of  God  in  the  Life  of 
His  World"  (1918)  he  has  supplemented  his 
earlier  elucidating  discussion  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  "Gloria  Patri,"  with  a  vitalizing 
interpretation  of  the  same  doctrine  in  the  light 
of  biology.  Another  of  the  most  intrepid  and 
clear- visioned  leaders  of  advancing  religious 
thought  was  President  William  DeWitt  Hyde 
(d.  1917)  too  early  withdrawn — author  of  books 
of  stirring  quality  in  ethical  and  social  theology. 
Other  contributors  to  an  expanding  theology 
are  James  M.  Campbell,  author  of  "The  In- 
dwelling Christ,"  "Paul  the  Mystic,"  and  other 
books  of  unusual  spiritual  insight;  Albert  J. 
Lyman  (d.  1915),  author  of  "Preaching  in  the 
New  Age,"  and  shining  exponent  of  the  same; 
Charles  A.  Dinsmore,  whose  "Atonement  in 
Literature  and  Life"  is  an  original  and  valuable 
contribution  to  the  subject;  E.  Ellsworth  Shu- 
maker,  author  of  "God  and  Man";  Clarence  A. 
Beckwith,  author  of  "Realities  of  Christian 
Theology";  Charles  E.  Jefferson,  vigorous  ex- 
ponent of  a  conservatively  liberal  theology 
through  pulpit  and  press;  William  F.  Bade, 
author  of  "The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of 
To-day";  Eugene  W.  Lyman,  author  of  "The- 
ology and  Human  Problems"  and  "The  Expe- 


290  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

rience  of  God  in  Modern  Life";  Herbert  A. 
Youtz,  author  of  "The  Enlarging  Conception 
of  God";  and  S.  P.  Cadman,  author  of  "Charles 
Darwin  and  Other  English  Thinkers." 

VIII 

Besides  the  theologians  already  referred  to 
and  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  direct  Pil- 
grim heritage,  a  complete  account  of  the  prog- 
ress of  American  theology  would  require  a  sur- 
vey of  the  work  of  Elisha  Mulford,  author  of 
those  wide-visioned  volumes  "The  Republic  of 
God"  and  "The  Nation";  of  A.  V.  G.  Allen,  to 
whose  invaluable  work  reference  has  been 
made;  of  Henry  S.  Nash,  a  thinker  and  writer 
of  rare  suggestiveness;  of  that  profoundly 
thoughtful  theologian,  William  P.  Du  Bose;  of 
Paul  Micou,  the  publication  of  whose  lectures 
at  the  Theological  Seminary  in  Virginia,  "Basic 
Ideas  of  Religion"  (1916),  formed  a  marked 
contribution  to  theological  literature;  and  of 
that  resourceful  and  radiating  author  Dean 
George  Hodges,  —  these  among  the  Episcopa- 
lians.1 Among  the  Presbyterians  who  have  con- 

1  One  feels  like  apologizing  for  attaching  these  denominational 
labels;  it  is  a  concession  to  the  passing  order,  for  the  sake  of 
location. 


LATER  REPRESENTATIVES         291 

tributed  to  theological  advance  one  would  need 
to  include  that  unflinching  and  successful  leader 
of  "New  School"  Presbyterianism,  Albert 
Barnes;  also  Henry  B.  Smith,  Charles  Cuth- 
bert  Hall,  and  later  William  Adams  Brown  and 
Henry  Van  Dyke,  whose  "Gospel  for  an  Age 
of  Doubt"  has  fulfilled  a  large  mediating  ser- 
vice. Among  the  Baptists  who  have  led  the  way 
into  a  broader  theology  have  been  Francis 
Wayland  and  Ezekiel  G.  Robinson,  in  the  earlier 
days,  and  Presidents  Harper  and  Faunce,  Henry 
C.  Mabie  and  Harry  E.  Fosdick  in  later  years. 
The  Methodists  of  the  vanguard  include  the 
late  Milton  S.  Terry,  W.  F.  Tillett,  W.  W. 
Guth,  Bishops  Henry  M.  Du  Bose  and  F.  J. 
McConnell.  The  Disciples  body  has  from  its 
inception  stood  for  a  simplified  theology,  but 
its  earlier  doctrinal  positions,  though  earnest 
and  vital,  were  of  a  limited  nature,  and  it  is 
only  within  recent  years  that  some  of  its  lead- 
ers, including  Peter  Ainslee,  H.  L.  Willett, 
Edward  S.  Ames,  Charles  C.  Morrison,  editor 
of  "The  Christian  Century,"  have  come  to 
have  a  conception  of  the  true  meaning  of  theo- 
logical progress. 

The  writings  of  Swedenborg,  as  interpreted 
in  America  by  the  Worcesters  and  others  and 


292  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

by  "The  New  Church  Review,"  have  exercised, 
somewhat  subtly,  a  liberalizing  and  spiritual- 
izing influence,  at  first  aided  but  now  hampered 
by  the  allegorical  doctrine  of  Scripture.  As  for 
Unitarianism,  the  story  of  its  emancipating 
though  sometimes  disintegrating  work  has  been 
well  rehearsed  by  its  own  historians  and  pane- 
gyrists. "No  body  of  like  size,"  Leonard  W. 
Bacon  has  said,  "was  ever  so  resplendent  with 
talents  and  accomplishments."  x  It  has  at  times 
diverted  but  on  the  whole  advanced  as  ad- 
vanced religious  thought  in  America. 

While  the  Quaker  doctrine  of  the  Inner  Light 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  regarded  as  intended 
to  lead  forward  into  new  truth,  it  offered  an 
early  asylum  in  this  country,  as  in  England,  for 
those  who  could  not  endure  the  shackles  of  Cal- 
vinism, and  Quakerism  has  given  us  the  practi- 
cal mystic  John  Woolman,  the  poet-theologian 
Whittier,  and  in  late  years  has  produced'  two 
fruitful  leaders  in  religious  thought,  George  A. 
Barton  and  Rufus  M.  Jones.2 

The  New  Thought-Christian  Science  move- 
ment has,  in  a  way,  promoted  theological  ad- 

1  See   L.  W.    Bacon's   History  of  American  Christianity,  p. 
387. 

2  See  especially  the  latter's  Social  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World 
(1904)  and  Studies  in  Mystical  Religion  (1909). 


LATER  REPRESENTATIVES          293 

vance  by  substituting  a  mystical  attitude  to- 
ward truth  for  the  older  rationalizing  and 
dogmatic  attitude,  but  it  has  within  it  no 
adequate  intellectual  understanding  of  the 
truths  it  presents  and  no  conception  whatever 
of  the  meaning  of  progress  in  religious  truth. 

IX 

It  is  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  theological 
progress  in  this  country  that  the  chief  Ameri- 
can religious  encyclopedias,  McClintock  and 
Strong's  "Cyclopedia  of  Biblical,  Theological, 
and  Ecclesiastical  Literature"  (1867)  and  the 
Schaff-Herzog  "Encyclopedia"  based  on  the 
"Real-Encyclopedia"  of  Hauck  and  edited  by 
Philip  Schaff  (1882,  revised  1889),  have  on  the 
whole  stood  for  modern  scholarship.  The  re- 
vised edition  of  the  latter  (1905)  under  the  able 
editorship  of  S.  M.  Jackson,  assisted  by  Charles 
Colebrook  Sherman  and  George  W.  Gilmore,  is 
in  accord  with  well-established  advance  along 
Biblical  and  theological  lines  and  has  helped  to 
give  American  theology  self-confidence  and  to 
keep  it  in  touch  with  that  of  Europe.  It  is  not  to 
be  overlooked,  too,  that  the  religious  dictionaries 
of  which  British  theological  scholarship  has  so 
good  a  right  to  be  proud,  especially  Dr.  Hast- 


294  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

ings'  "Dictionary  of  Religion  and  Ethics,"  have 
a  good  proportion  of  articles  by  Americans. 
Nor  should  account  fail  to  be  made  of  the  enter- 
prise and  breadth  of  outlook  of  American  ec- 
clesiastical scholarship  evidenced  in  the  fact  of 
the  appearance  as  well  as  the  character  of  the 
"Catholic  Encyclopedia"  (New  York,  1907). 
When  a  church  begins  to  make  encyclopedias 
it  will  find  itself  borne  forward  by  the  very 
procession  which  it  has  joined. 

The  American  religious  periodical  press,  too, 
has  been  steadily  advancing  in  breadth  and 
ability.  While  "The  Independent"  and  "The 
Outlook"  (formerly  "The  Christian  Union") 
were  distinctively  religious  organs,  they  did 
an  incalculable  service  in  promoting  fresh 
religious  thought,  and  even  now  an  occasional 
editorial  or  article  on  a  religious  theme  gives 
tone  to  their  varied  and  picturesque  pages. 
Their  defection,  if  it  be  such,  from  the  field  of 
distinctively  religious  journalism  is,  however, 
more  than  atoned  for  by  the  increasingly  broad 
and  intelligent  discussion  of  religious  problems 
by  such  periodicals  as  "The  Nation"  and  "The 
New  Republic."  The  old-line  denominational 
papers  are  becoming  broader  in  their  scope  and 
outlook,  though  with  less  genuine  interest  in 


LATER  REPRESENTATIVES         295 

theology,  and  their  editors  and  contributors 
look  across  the  lowering  fences  with  no  little  of 
friendly  appreciation  of  what  is  going  on  in  other 

fields. 

x 

The  theological  schools,  as  collective  custo- 
dians and  dispensers  of  theology,  have  some  of 
them  already  entered  incidentally  into  our 
purview  of  theological  progress.  It  remains  to 
add  a  few  further  words  concerning  those  which 
have  contributed  most  to  theological  progress, 
through  that  cooperative  service  which  ac- 
complishes much. 

If  Andover  Seminary  played  a  large  part  in 
theological  advance  in  America,  Yale  Divinity 
School  (founded  in  1822),  in  a  less  conspicuous 
and  controversial  fashion,  performed  a  hardly 
less  important  service.  Unhampered,  in  the 
main,  by  suspicion  and  attack,  Yale  theologians 
have  worked  constructively  and  effectively  to 
reconcile  "old  faiths  and  doctrine  new"  in  the 
interest  of  a  genuine  advance.  Samuel  Harris 
made  a  contribution  to  the  philosophy  of 
theism  so  careful,  so  catholic,  and  so  progressive 
as  to  raise  the  whole  body  of  American  theology 
to  a  higher  level.  The  notable  work  of  his  col- 
league, George  P.  Fisher,  embraced  not  only  his 


296  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

scholarly  and  widely  circulated  histories  of  the 
church  and  of  Christian  doctrine  but  such  liber- 
ating volumes  as  "The  Grounds  of  Theistic  and 
Christian  Belief"  (1883)  and  "Nature  and 
Revelation"  (1890).  Dr.  Fisher's  work  in 
church  history  has  been  carried  forward  by 
his  successor,  Williston  Walker,  with  a  breadth 
and  accuracy  of  judgment  that  have  made  his 
contributions  to  the  subject  an  informing  and 
irenic  influence  among  all  bodies  of  Christians. 
In  the  field  of  Christology,  George  B.  Stevens, 
whose  early  death  in  1906  was  a  great  loss  to 
the  School,  left  a  work  of  scholarly  progres- 
sivism  in  his  "The  Christian  Doctrine  of 
Salvation"  (I9O5).1 


1  New  Testament  study  at  New  Haven  has  been  given  a 
liberalizing  character  by  Professors  Frank  C.  Porter  and  Benja- 
min W.  Bacon.  The  latter's  brilliant  and  untiring  work  in 
criticism  has  been  supplemented  by  a  volume  of  unusual  acumen 
and  value  in  the  interpretation  of  Christianity,  Christianity  Old 
and  New  (Earl  Lectures,  1911).  The  present  Dean  of  Yale  School 
of  Religion,  Charles  R.  Brown,  brought  from  his  magnetic 
pulpit  in  Oakland,  California,  a  power  of  clear  thought  which 
has  crystallized  in  a  group  of  books  which  have  done  much  to 
further  moderately  progressive  Christian  thinking,  especially 
among  young  men.  Of  these  volumes,  The  Main  Points  carries 
an  unusual  measure  of  clarity,  sanity,  and  force  into  the  state- 
ment of  the  cardinal  Christian  doctrines.  In  the  University 
Faculty,  Charles  F.  Kent's  Biblical  textbooks  have  been  the 
harbingers  of  a  larger  outlook  to  thousands  of  students.  Charles 
C.  Torrey's  studies  are  contributing  much  to  the  advance  of 
critical  scholarship. 


LATER  REPRESENTATIVES          297 

Oberlin  College,  "a  cutting  from  Lane  Semi- 
nary," was  from  the  first  a  leading  force  in 
exorcising  certain  of  the  abnormalities  of 
Calvinism  and  has  continued  to  nourish  a  vital 
spiritual  type  of  Christian  thinking  and  living.1 
No  theologian  of  to-day  in  the  Pilgrim  succes- 
sion has  done  more  for  the  genuine  progress  of 
theology  than  President  Henry  Churchill  King. 
When  his  "Reconstruction  in  Theology"  ap- 
peared in  1901,  it  at  once  summarized  and 
stimulated  theological  advance  and  the  vol- 
umes which  have  followed,  especially  "Theol- 
ogy and  the  Social  Consciousness"  (1902),  have 
held  theology  to  its  high  calling  and  done  much 
to  adjust  it  more  intimately  to  the  best  thought 
of  the  time.2  In  this  work  Dr.  King  has  been 
finely  sustained  and  furthered  by  Edward  I. 
Bosworth  and  other  members  of  the  Oberlin 
faculty.  Other  seminaries,  founded  by  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Pilgrims,  Bangor,  Hartford, 
Chicago,  Pacific,  and  Atlanta,  while  in  their 

1  For  a  survey  of  Oberlin  theology  see  F.  H.  Foster's  History 
of  New  England  Theology. 

*  President  King  has  had  the  great  advantage  of  approaching 
theology  from  the  chair  of  Philosophy.  Like  Hermann  Lotze, 
whose  Microcosmus  he  long  used  as  a  textbook  in  his  classes,  he 
has  taught  a  philosophy  and  a  theology  in  which  natural  science 
and  psychology  have  had  large  emphasis.  Personality  also  occupies 
a  leading  place  in  his  writings. 


298  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

earlier  history  in  the  main  conservative,  have 
had  upon  their  faculties  men  of  independent 
and  progressive  views.1 

Union  Seminary  (founded  in  1835),  released 
from  the  fetters  of  denominational  control 
though  constantly  subjected  to  charges  of 
heresy,  has  vied  with  Andover  and  Yale  in  fur- 
thering, in  its  own  way,  the  progress  of  theology. 
Its  faculty  has  stood  for  the  finest  achievements 
in  advancing  scholarship.  Henry  B.  Smith  was 
one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  Christocentric  theol- 
ogy in  America,  although,  as  Foster  has  shown, 
he  did  not  break  with  the  New  England  theol- 
ogy.2 In  Biblical  and  historical  scholarship,  the 
well-known  names  of  Briggs,  Brown,  and  McGif- 
fert  are  representative  of  the  best  and  sanest 
advance.  In  the  field  of  apologetics  the  late 
George  W.  Knox  was  a  proven  leader,  as  was 
also  President  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall.  In  sys- 
tematic theology  no  present  writer  is  accom- 

1  See  Professor  C.  M.  Clark's  History  of  Bangor  Seminary 
(1915);  Recent  Christian  Progress,  Studies  in  Christian  Thought 
and  Work  During  the  Last  Seventy-five  Years  in  Celebration  of  the 
Seventy-fifth  Anniversary  of  Hartford  Seminary  (1909);  Religious 
Progress  on  the  Pacific  Slope,  Addresses  and  Papers  at  the  Semi- 
Centennial  Anniversary  of  Pacific  School  of  Religion  (1916). 
Atlanta  Seminary  founded  in  1901,  is  proving  a  source  of  liberating 
religious  thought  in  the  South.  Pacific  Seminary,  now  Pacific 
School  of  Religion,  has  become  undenominational. 

1  History  of  New  England  Theology,  p.  435. 


LATER  REPRESENTATIVES         299 

plishing  more  constructive  and  permanent  work 
than  William  Adams  Brown,  whose  strong,  wise, 
and  winning  textbook  "Christian  Theology  in 
Outline"  (1906)  has,  like  William  Newton 
Clarke's  irenic  "Outline  of  Christian  Theology" 
(1894),  been  the  guide  of  many  minds  in  the 
transition  from  the  older  to  the  newer  point  of 
view. 

A  school  of  theology  of  the  German  Reformed 
Church,  which  took  its  rise  in  Mercersburg, 
Pa.,  about  1836,  accomplished  an  important 
service  for  theological  progress  through  that 
group  of  exceptionally  able  and  progressive 
men,  F.  A.  Rauch,  John  W.  Nevin,  and  Philip 
Schaff.1 

To  rehearse  the  service  in  behalf  of  theologi- 
cal progress  of  Harvard  Divinity  School  (es- 
tablished in  1815),  next  to  Andover  Seminary 
the  oldest  of  American  theological  schools  and 
for  a  long  time  Andover's  theological  foe,  would 
require  a  chapter,  or  rather  volume,  by  itself. 
At  first  and  for  some  time  a  partisan  and  dis- 
trusted institution,  it  gradually  steadied  into 
unbiased  and  effective  leadership,  numbering 
at  different  periods  among  its  influential  teach- 

1  See  "Mercersburg  Theology"  in  the  Schaff-Herzog  Cyclo- 
pedia. 


300  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

ers  Frederick  Hedge,  Ephraim  Peabody,  Charles 
Carroll  Everett,  one  of  our  most  profound  con- 
tributors to  Theism,  Joseph  Henry  Thayer,  the 
brilliant  and  chivalric  soldier-scholar,  Crawford 
H.  Toy,  Francis  G.  Peabody,  who  by  his  sane 
and  vital  interpretation  of  the  social  nature  of 
Christianity  has  made  all  denominations  of 
American  Christians  his  debtors,  Dean  W.  W. 
Fenn,  James  Hardy  Ropes,  and  the  Moores  — 
George  F.  Moore,  whose  work  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  in  the  history  of  religion  forms  one  of 
the  notable  contributions  to  American  scholar- 
ship,1 and  Edward  C.  Moore,  who,  like  Charles 
Cuthbert  Hall,  has  presented  an  exceptionally 
broad  view  of  Christianity  as  the  missionary 
faith  2  and  who  in  his  little  volume  "Protestant 
Thought  since  Kant"  has  etched  the  progress 
of  modern  philosophy  and  theology  with  a 
rarely  skilled  hand.  Professor_W.  E.  Hocking, 
of  the  Harvard  Philosophical  Department,  in 
his  "The  Meaning  of  God  in  Human  Experi- 
ence" has  made  an  original  and  stimulating 

1  Dr.  Moore's  History  of  Religions  —  a  history  of  theologies  as 
well  as  religions  —  incomparable  in  wealth  and  scope,  has  been 
followed  by  a  volume  treating  of  Mohammedanism,  Judaism, 
and  Christianity. 

3  See,  e.g.,  "The  Liberal  Movement  and  Missions,"  American 
Journal  of  Theology,  vol.  XVII,  p.  22* 


LATER  REPRESENTATIVES          301 

contribution  to  philosophical  theology  on  the 
same  high  level  as  that  of  Professor  Royce.1 

"The  New  World,"  published  under  the  au- 
spices of  the  Harvard  Divinity  School  from 
1892  to  1900,  carried  on  the  spirit  and  work  of 
"The  Andover  Review."  Its  successor,  "The 
Harvard  Theological  Review,"  has  reached  a 
still  higher  level  in  breadth  of  outlook,  thor- 
ough scholarship  and  productive  theological 
thought.  American  theology  has  cause  for  grat- 
itude in  the  establishment  (1912)  of  another 
review,  not  associated  with  any  institution,  of 
unique  value  and  world-wide  service,  "The 
Constructive  Quarterly"  (New  York), —  edited 
by  Mr.  Silas  McBee  —  undoubtedly  the  most 
inclusive  representative  of  all  sections  of  the 
Christian  church  ever  published,  able,  judicious, 
progressive.2 

XI 

Other  schools  of  theology  have  taken  vital 
part  in  furthering  and  making  intelligible  the 
modern  viewpoint,  notably  the  Divinity  School 

*A  later  volume,  Human  Nature  and  its  Remaking  (1918), 
helps  still  further  to  bridge  the  gap  between  psychological  and 
philosophical  and  theological  thought. 

*  For  some  years  past,  The  Homiletic  Review  (New  York)  has 
been  increasingly  broad  and  inclusive  in  its  viewpoint. 


302  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

of  Chicago  University,1  Rochester  Theological 
Seminary,2  Boston  University  School  of  Theol- 
ogy,3 and  the  Episcopal  Theological  School  of 
Massachusetts.4  The  Divinity  School  of  Chicago 
University,  started  so  auspiciously  on  its  mis- 
sion by  President  Harper,  through  its  publica- 
tions as  well  as  its  instruction,  is  accomplishing 
an  exceptionally  extensive  liberalizing  and 

1  See  especially  George  B.  Foster's  radical  The  Finality  of  the 
Christian  Religion,  Ernest  De  Witt  Burton's  Biblical  Ideas  of 
Atonement  (with  J.  M.  P.  Smith  and  G.  B.  Smith),  Shailer 
Mathews'  The  Church  and  the  Changing  Order  and  The  Gospel 
and  the  Modern  Man,  Shirley  J.  Case's  The  Evolution  of  Early 
Christianity,  J.  M.  P.  Smith's  Social  Idealism  and  the  Changing 
Order,  Edward  S.  Ames '  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  and 
A  Guide  to  the  Study  of  the  Christian  Religion,  edited  by  Gerald 
B.  Smith.  A  careful  critical  review  of  this  last  important  volume, 
by  Professor  William  Adams  Brown,  may  be  found  in  the  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Theology,  July,  1918. 

8  While  President  Augustus  H.  Strong  has  been  by  no  means  a 
progressive,  he  has  broadened  and  enriched  Baptist  theology. 
Professor  Rauschenbusch  was  a  world  leader  in  social  theology. 
Other  members  of  the  Rochester  Faculty  have  contributed  to 
theological  advance. 

s  H.  G.  Mitchell  by  his  Ethics  of  the  Old  Testament  and  other 
volumes  won  the  condemnation  of  the  Methodist  bishops. 
Henry  C.  Sheldon's  System  of  Christian  Doctrine  is  a  great  advance 
over  the  systems  of  Wiley  and  Watson,  and  Borden  P.  Bowne 
was  the  bearer  of  Methodism's  most  advanced  standard.  Pro- 
fessor Olin  S.  Curtis,  of  Drew  Seminary,  in  his  The  Christian 
Faith,  has  produced  a  work  largely  imbued  with  the  modern  spirit, 
especially  in  its  emphasis  upon  personality. 

<  Professors  A.  V.  G.  Allen  and  H.  S.  Nash,  already  alluded 
to,  were  members  of  the  faculty  of  this  school,  and  the  lamented 
Dr.  George  Hodges  since  1894  was  its  Dean. 


LATER  REPRESENTATIVES         303 

educating  work.  Its  two  virile  periodicals,  the 
broad  and  scholarly  "American  Journal  of 
Theology"  and  the  vigorous  and  incisive 
"Biblical  World,"  are  doing  a  work  of  educa- 
tion and  advance  that  is  too  well  founded  to 
be  resisted  and  that  has  no  aim  but  the  further- 
ance of  truth.1 

It  is  evident  from  this  incomplete  enumera- 
tion of  untrammeled  and  forward-looking  Prot- 
estant theologians  and  theological  institutions 
of  yesterday  and  to-day  that  American  theology 
is  moving  forward  as  well  as  outward,  with  a 
freedom  and  an  impetus  that  promise  much  for 
the  future.  It  is  true  that  there  is  more  of  pro- 
mulgating than  of  probing.  There  is  a  dearth 
of  original  and  productive  thinking  upon  the 
larger  problems  of  theology.  But  the  way  lies 
open  and  the  incentives  increase  constantly. 
Hospitality  to  voices  from  all  quarters  —  not 
to  say  eagerness  to  listen  —  was  never  so  great 
as  now.  This  fact  is  encouraging  for  the  future, 
—  toward  which  we  turn  in  concluding  with  a 
hopefulness  begotten  on  the  road  we  have 
traversed. 

1  Criticism  may  be  offered,  however,  of  the  confinement  of  the 
Chicago  School  to  the  historical  method  in  theology,  thus  limit- 
ing both  its  intellectual  and  spiritual  range.  , 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CONCLUSION 
THE  FUTURE  OF  THEOLOGY   IN  AMERICA 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CONCLUSION 
FUTURE  OF  THEOLOGY  IN  AMERICA 

NOTHING  is  more  characteristic  of  the  present 
period  of  American  theology,  as  contrasted 
with  the  past,  than  the  calm  which  has  fallen 
upon  it  after  three  centuries  of  conflict  and  con- 
troversy. The  question  cannot  but  arise  whether 
it  is  the  calm  of  death  or  of  life,  of  shallow- 
ness  or  of  depth,  of  stagnation  or  of  movement. 


From  its  inception  theology  has  been  a  storm- 
tossed  science,  largely  because  its  issues  have 
been  so  close  to  human  hopes  and  fears.  American 
theology  has  had  its  full  share  of  upheaval  and 
tempest.  Storm  after  storm  has  risen  "dark 
o'er  its  way."  The  first  invasion  of  heterodoxy 
that  troubled  the  New  England  faith  was  that 
of  Arminianism,  against  which  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards hurled  all  the  thunderbolts  of  his  dra- 
matic and  forceful  genius.  Then  came,  in 


308  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

rapid  succession,  Liberalism,  Universalism,  Uni- 
tarianism,  Denominationalism,  followed  by  the 
New  Theology,  Biblical  Criticism,  Evolution, 
Progressivism. 

The  period  of  denominational  controversy 
in  which  the  leading  denominations  were  pitted 
against  each  other,  running  through  the  second 
and  third  quarters  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
was  followed  by  a  period  of  intra-denomina- 
tional  controversy  in  which  many  of  the 
leading  Christian  bodies  were  rent  by  inter- 
necine theological  conflict.  This  period  passed 
without  causing  much  permanent  schism  al- 
though the  fires  still  smolder  in  some  of  the 
more  conservative  camps.1 

The  conflict  between  the  conservative  and 
progressive  wings  in  the  Pilgrim  heritage,  which 
has  been  described,  has  been  paralleled,  with 
differing  phases,  in  all  the  leading  Christian 
bodies.  In  almost  every  case  the  progressive 
cause,  while  tempered  and  restrained  by  con- 
servative resistance,  has  made  distinct  and 
permanent  headway.  Not  seldom,  it  is  true, 
the  newer  viewpoint  has  been  presented  in  a 


1  The  divisions  upon  the  slavery  issue  were  primarily  political 
but  were  given  a  doctrinal  color,  also,  by  appeal  to  creedal  as  well 
as  scriptural  standards. 


CONCLUSION  309 

spirit  and  with  a  method  so  negative  and  cyni- 
cal that  it  has  carried  no  religious  values  and 
has  alienated  many  whose  chief  concern  is  for 
such  values.  But  this  controversial  and  critical 
spirit  is  giving  place  to  one  that  is  more  reverent, 
considerate,  and  constructive. 

In  this  theological  advance  the  leadership 
has  passed  not  so  much  away  from  the  original 
Pilgrim  lineage  as  into  the  larger  fellowship 
which  has  grown  up  about  it.  American  theology 
is  increasingly  becoming  that  which  theology  as 
a  science  must  be  in  order  to  be  true  to  itself, 
—  interdenominational^  or  rather  undenomina- 
tionaly  unsectarian,  devoted  to  truth  for  its  own 
sake  and  not  to  the  furthering  of  the  interests 
of  any  particular  sect  or  denomination.  This  out- 
come is  happily  fulfilling  the  prediction  with 
which  I.  A.  Dorner  closed  his  "History  of  Prot- 
estant Theology."  After  referring  to  the  disrup- 
tion of  parties  —  by  which  he  meant  denom- 
inations —  in  America,  as  standing  in  the  way 
of  theological  advance,  he  concluded  as  follows : 

But  the  more  a  feeling  for  theological  science  in- 
creases and  with  it  that  power  of  reasoning  in  which 
a  unifying  power  is  inherent  because  its  aim  is  the 
universally  and  absolutely  true,  the  more  will  many 
of  the  existing  denominations  necessarily  disappear, 
and  others  enter  upon  such  a  process  of  mutual 


310  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

understanding  as  will  secure  a  common  history  of 
their  intellectual  and  religious  life,  which,  like  that 
of  Great  Britain,  may  vie,  on  equal  terms  and  with 
fruitful  results  with  German  theology.1 

II 

The  removal  of  the  incubus  of  sectarianism 
from  theology  gives  it  an  unlimited  field  for 
progress.  If  only  it  could  come  to  be  recognized 
universally  among  Christians  that  progress  is 
the  true  and  normal  life  of  theology,  much  might 
be  hoped  for.  Progress  does  not  mean  that 
spiritual  truth  is  shifting  and  unstable,  con- 
tinually changing  its  nature.  Unhappily  this  is 
the  notion  of  theological  progress  which  pre- 
vails among  conservatives,  and  it  is  against 
this  —  and  rightly  —  that  they  raise  their 
protest.  But  progress  means  something  very 
different  from  fluctuation,  or  the  renunciation 
of  convictions  once  firmly  and  clearly  grasped. 
To  abandon  a  conviction  once  formed  is  one 
thing;  to  reinterpret  and  enlarge  it  is  another. 
Progress  means,  not  the  former,  but  the  latter. 
It  means  the  recognition  of  the  law  of  develop- 
ment—  whose  counterpart  in  the  sphere  of 
nature  is  evolution  —  as  of  the  very  nature 
of  the  spiritual  life. 

1  History  of  Protestant  Theology,  vol.  II,  p.  501. 


CONCLUSION  311 

True  development  is  never  a  destructive  but 
always  a  conserving  process.  It  holds  fast  and 
carries  forward  all  the  real  gains  of  experience 
and  reflection  —  tested,  purified,  refined,  re- 
lated —  and  out  of  them  constructs  further  and 
larger  gains.  Nor  does  the  principle  of  develop- 
ment in  spiritual  truth  disturb  its  character  as 
revelation.  It  simply  recognizes  the  method  of 
revelation  as  continuous,  accretionary,  cumula- 
tive, and  thus  at  once  saves  theology  from  the 
curse  of  becoming  static  and  makes  revelation 
a  far  more  vital  and  normal  reality. 

So  far,  then,  from  testifying  to  its  weakness, 
the  movement  to  transcend  its  past  shows  that 
theology  has  its  greatest  glory,  its  very  life,  in 
its  power  of  advance.  No  sooner  does  a  theology 
win  the  title  "new"  than  it  must  needs  yield  to 
a  newer.  Thus  it  was  with  the  "New  Divinity" 
of  Jonathan  Edwards  and  his  followers,  with 
the  novelties  of  the  New  Haven  theology,  the 
new  departure  of  Edwards  Park,  with  the 
"New  Theology"  of  Munger  and  Gordon  and 
the  Andover  faculty  and  thus  it  is  coming  to  be 
with  the  newest  theology  of  our  day.  It  would 
be  a  reflection  upon  theology,  upon  truth,  upon 
God,  if  it  were  not  so.  This  ceaseless  movement, 
in  the  light  of  the  principle  of  development, 


312  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

means  no  mere  shifting  of  ground  but  actual 
advance,  however  slow  and  indirect.  Such 
plausible  judgments  of  the  nature  of  theological 
changes  as  that  which  reduces  them  all  to  mere 
"winds  of  doctrine"  —  as  when  Emerson  wrote, 
"Calvinism  rushes  toward  Unitarianism  as 
Unitarianism  toward  naturalism"  —  are  as 
easy  as  they  are  superficial.  They  do  not  get 
below  the  surface.  Emerson,  though  a  catholic 
and  aggressive  thinker,  was  not  a  discriminat- 
ing one;  epigrammatists  seldom  are.  The  direc- 
tion of  religious  thought  is  too  subtle  and  com- 
plex to  be  read  by  the  weathervane.  There  are, 
to  be  sure,  winds  of  doctrine,  but  there  are  also, 
apart  from  and  unaffected  by  these,  accumu- 
lating and  expanding  movements  which  set 
theology  genuinely  forward.  Constant  change 
in  religious  thought  does  not  conflict  with  abid- 
ing truth  at  the  core  of  it. 

in 

There  are  those  who  would  have  us  believe 
that  this  process  of  change  is  due  entirely  to  a 
constant  adjustment  on  the  part  of  Christianity, 
in  order  to  adapt  itself  to  the  changing  needs 
and  ideals  of  society  rather  than  to  an  inner 
impulsion  in  its  own  unfolding  norm.  While 


CONCLUSION  313 

there  is  a  measure  of  truth  in  this  contention, — 
for  environment  offers  a  needed  stimulant  and 
nourishment  to  development, —  still,  adaptation 
is  secondary  to  the  principle  of  inner  develop- 
ment of  truth  itself.  Christianity,  like  the  earth, 
"bringeth  forth  fruit  of  itself,  first  the  blade, 
then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear."  x 

This  is  not  saying  that  development  has  been 
uniform  and  harmonious.  The  kingdom  which 
is  "as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed"  as  it  grows  mani- 
fests not  only  the  truth  enwrapped  within  it, 
but  the  effect  upon  it  — r  evil  as  well  as  good  — 
of  its  environment.  Though  congruous  in  itself, 
yet  owing  to  defects  in  soil  and  climate  and  to 
parasitic  growths  which  attach  themselves  to 
it,  some  leaves  wither  and  fall,  some  unshapely 
growths  disturb  its  proportions,  and  some  fruit 
comes  to  naught.  Nevertheless  the  plant  is 
true  to  the  seed.  In  other  words,  such  an 
impasse  as  the  Harnack-Loisy  controversy 

1  Such  a  statement  as  that  of  Dr.  Galloway  in  his  The  Philoso- 
phy of  Religion,  "The  speculative  impulse  did  not  proceed  from 
within  the  Christian  religion  itself;  it  was  due  to  its  contact 
with  an  independent  body  of  philosophical  conceptions"  (p.  4), 
fails  to  do  justice  to  the  inherent  speculative  impulse  which  alone 
accounts  for  the  freedom  and  range  of  speculation  in  Christian 
theology.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  "new  spiritual  life 
introduced  by  Christianity  would  have  itself  produced  a  specula- 
tive theology  even  without  external  stimulus.  The  wide-ranging 
speculation  of  Paul  may  be  cited  as  evidence. 


314  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

reached  can  be  overcome  only  in  a  synthesis 
which  includes  and  transcends  both  conten- 
tions.1 

The  New  Theology  exhibited  a  far  higher 
stage  of  development  of  American  Christian- 
ity than  the  gnarled  and  twisted  trunk  of 
Edwardeanism  from  which  it  sprang.  Never- 
theless it  was  but  a  partial  and  imperfect  inter- 
pretation of  Christian  truth.  In  the  world  of 
spirit  the  law  of  development  is  far  more  com- 
plex and  imponderable  than  in  that  of  nature, 
just  as  the  inner  life  of  a  person  transcends  in 
freedom  and  intricacy  that  of  a  plant  or  animal 
organism.  There  are  lapses  and  recoveries, 
straight  progressions  and  oblique  and  one- 
sided movements  in  the  development  of  Chris- 
tianity as  a  whole,  just  as  there  are  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  thought  and  character  of 
individual  Christians.  The  whole  process  goes 
on  in  the  realm  of  freedom  in  which  all  sorts  of 
experiments  and  failures  occur.  Nevertheless,  in 
spite  of  these  indirections  and  including  them, 
there  is  a  progressive  unfolding  of  the  inner 
nature  of  Christianity  itself.  If  this  is  true  of  the 

1  See  Harnack:  What  is  Christianity?  Loisy:  The  Gospel  and  the 
Church;  William  Adams  Brown:  The  Essence  of  Christianity; 
J.  W.  Buckham:  "The  Vital  Issues  of  the  Harnack  Controversy" 
(Appendix  to  Christ  and  the  Eternal  Order). 


CONCLUSION  315 

life  of  Christianity  as  experience,  as  it  works 
out  its  own  nature,  much  more  is  it  true  of 
theology,  which  is  its  imperfect  expression  in 
the  realm  of  ideas.  To  look  for  anything  like 
finality  in  the  New  Theology,  would  be  as  short- 
sighted as  to  fail  to  see  its  advance  over  previ- 
ous theologies.  Our  task,  then,  will  be  incom- 
plete unless  in  closing  we  indicate  something  of 
the  limitations  and  imperfections  of  the  New 
Theology  and  seek  to  discover  the  outlines  of 
the  newer  and  completer  theology  which  is 
even  now  taking  shape  in  the  crucible  of  Chris- 
tian life  and  thought. 

IV 

One  pardonable,  though  serious,  fault  of  the 
New  Theology  stands  out  with  especial  vivid- 
ness in  the  light  of  the  Great  War.  It  was  too 
optimistic.  It  failed  to  see  how  far  many  of  the 
facts  and  forces  of  modern  life  are  from  being 
consonant  with  Christianity.  Its  doctrines  were 
extensive  enough  in  their  scope  but  not  intensive 
enough  in  their  application.  They  did  not  take 
account  of  all  the  facts.  This  excess  of  opti- 
mism in  the  New  Theology  was  due  in  part  to  its 
ignoring  the  Christless  elements  and  conditions 
in  modern  life, —  forces  leading  not  to  that 


316  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

progressive  coming  of  the  kingdom  which  it 
pictured  but  straight  to  the  awful  cataclysm 
which  befell  the  world  in  1914.  There  was  a 
disposition  on  the  part  of  the  New  Theology 
to  be  content  with  the  centralization  of  Christ 
in  theory  rather  than  to  press  it  home  to  the 
heart  of  life.  Its  advocates  were  so  enamored 
with  the  vision  of  what  life  would  be  with 
Christ  informing  and  infilling  its  every  institu- 
tion and  activity  that  they  —  and  we  who 
caught  their  vision  —  forgot  how  far  our 
civilization  is  from  such  a  goal.  It  would  not  be 
true  to  say  that  the  New  Theology  ignored 
evil  or  belittled  sin,  but  it  failed  to  take  full 
account  of  their  flinty  factuality. 

The  optimistic  outlook  of  the  New  Theology 
is  not,  however,  to  be  wondered  at.  For  the 
first  time  in  American  Christianity  the  incarna- 
tion had  been  restored  to  its  true  place  in 
theology  and  shed  its  incomparable  light  over 
the  whole  area  of  human  life.  The  effect  upon 
the  more  eager  spirits  in  the  ministry,  especially 
upon  the  younger  men,  was  electrical.  It  seemed 
to  many  of  us  who  were  studying  theology  and 
beginning  our  ministry  in  the  eighties  and 
nineties  as  if  humanity  were  on  the  eve  of  the 
golden  age.  Those  were  days  when  "to  be  alive 


CONCLUSION  317 

was  bliss,  and  to  be  young  was  very  heaven." 
The  fresh  revelation  of  the  character  and 
mission  of  Jesus  in  all  the  puissance  and  charm 
of  his  sacrificial,  victorious  personality  ir- 
radiated nature  and  humanity.  The  kingdom 
of  God  appeared  to  be  at  hand.  We  were  en- 
tranced by  the  "vision  splendid."  As  the  dawn 
of  the  twentieth  century  approached  we  felt 
sure  that  it  meant  the  ushering  in  of  the  reign 
of  universal  brotherhood.  The  intimations 
seemed  to  be  everywhere, —  in  a  growing  social 
idealism,  in  deepening  missionary  enterprise, 
in  broadening  Christian  thought  and  sympathy, 
in  increasing  internationalism.  The  vision  of 
Dr.  Hosmer's  hymn  was  ours: 

And  lo!  already  on  the  hills 
The  flags  of  dawn  appear. 

The  expectation,  like  that  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians, was  premature.  We  had  still  to  learn: 

But  the  slow  watches  of  the  night 
Not  less  to  God  belong, 
And  for  the  everlasting  right 
The  silent  stars  are  strong. 

It  has  been  a  harsh  awakening,  calling  for  that 
reinforcement  of  faith  which  other  generations 
beside  our  own  have  had  to  learn  to  make. 
Yet  the  vision  that  arises  afresh  from  the  ruins 


318  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

of  the  old  order  is  better  and  larger,  and  the 
theology  which  it  is  stimulating  is  nobler  and 
fairer,  though  less  iridescent,  than  that  attend- 
ing the  advent  of  the  twentieth  century. 

Not  only  did  the  New  Theology  allow  its 
optimism  to  obscure  the  enormity  of  existing 
evils  but  it  did  not  recognize  to  the  full  the 
patient  effort  and  suffering  necessary  for  their 
eradication.  Failing  to  recognize  the  full  mean- 
ing and  power  of  sin,  it  failed  to  give  sufficient 
emphasis  to  atonement  as  a  law  of  the  spiritual 
world.  Not  that  it  denied  atonement  but  that 
it  allowed  it  to  be  too  far  absorbed  into  the 
doctrine  of  incarnation.  To  show  the  unity  be- 
tween these  two  doctrines,  incarnation  and 
atonement,  was  a  valuable  service  which  it 
rendered;  but  atonement  hardly  received  its 
proportional  place  in  the  relationship. 

v 

In  addition  to  these  deficiencies,  which  were 
more  or  less  its  own,  there  were  certain  limi- 
tations of  knowledge  in  the  period  in  which 
the  New  Theology  grew  up  which  stood  in  its 
way.  Since  the  incoming  of  the  twentieth 
century  there  has  been  a  great  enlargement  of 
outlook  in  several  directions,  opening  fields  for 


CONCLUSION  319 

religious  and  theological  advance.  We  have, 
in  fact,  already  entered  upon  the  construction 
of  a  new  New  Theology  and  it  is  not  difficult  to 
discover  the  general  direction  it  is  to  take  and 
something  of  its  spirit  and  tasks. 

In  the  first  place,  theology  in  the  future  will 
make  far  larger  account  and  far  more  intimate 
study  of  religion  as  a  whole,  in  its  essential 
nature  and  its  varied  forms.  The  New^Theology 
was  not  indifferent  to,  or  unacquainted  with, 
the  history  of  religion,  but  it  failed  to  take  it 
up  in  any  such  large  way  into  its  structure  as 
to  realize  its  implications  and  values.  If  it  had 
done  so  it  is  evident  that  no  such  theory  as 
future  probation,  with  its  ignoring  of  the  relig- 
ious—  one  may  say  Christian  —  values  of 
other  faiths,  could  have  held  the  place  it  did  in 
the  minds  of  some  at  least  of  the  representatives 
of  the  New  Theology.  To  make  this  enlarged 
place  for  the  study  of  the  nature  of  religion  as 
such  does  not  mean  the  restriction  of  the  scope 
and  significance  of  Christianity,  but  rather  an 
augmented  sense  of  its  ability  to  justify  the 
consciousness  which  it  has  always  had  —  but 
without  sufficient  estimate  of  its  implications  — 
of  being  the  universal  religion.  Those  pregnant 
words  of  Jesus  are  coming  home  to  the  present- 


320  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

day  student  of  religion  with  vastly  greatened 
meaning,  "I  am  not  come  to  destroy  but  to 
fulfill."  It  has  long  been  a  common  claim  of 
'Christianity  to  fulfill  the  Jewish  faith.  How 
much  greater  is  it  to  fulfill  the  faith  of  all  the 
aspiring  religions  of  the  race!1  Such  an  office 
of  fulfillment  carries  with  it,  at  the  same  time, 
the  function  of  correction.  To  fulfill  other  faiths 
means  also  to  disclose  their  defects.  It  must  be 
a  sifting  process  in  order  to  be  a  fulfilling  one. 
To  exercise  such  an  office  toward  other  faiths 
cannot  fail  to  bring  out  truths  and  potencies  in 
Christianity  which  now  lie  dormant  within  it. 
To  put  Christianity  into  closer  touch  with  the 
whole  range  and  content  of  religion  thus  means 
the  unlimited  enrichment  of  Christian  theology, 
both  extensively  and  intensively. 

VI 

The  intensified  study  of  religion  as  a  whole 
involves  also  a  scrutiny  of  the  nature  and  con- 
tent of  religious  experience,  such  as  theology  has 
not  yet  undertaken.  What  is  religious  experi- 
ence? What  are  its  earliest  and  most  funda- 
mental manifestations?  What  is  its  relation  to 

'See  J.  W.  Buckham:  "Christianity  among  the  Religions," 
Hibbcrt  Journal,  April,  1909. 


CONCLUSION  321 

sensation,  feeling,  volition,  and  ideas?  These 
are  problems  into  which  we  have  just  begun  to 
penetrate.1  It  would  not  be  true  to  say  that 
nothing  had  been  done  in  this  direction  prior 
to  the  present  century.  A  study  of  religious 
experience  of  genuine  value  was  made,  for 
example,  by  Professor  Lewis  F.  Stearns  of 
Bangor  Seminary,  in  his  Ely  Lectures  "The 
Evidence  of  Christian  Experience,"  as  early  as 
1893.  Yet  no  sufficient  investigation  of  the 
nature  of  religious  experience  could  be  made 
without  the  ampler  knowledge  of  primitive 
religion  and  of  religious  psychology  which  has 
been  acquired  in  the  last  twenty-five  years. 

VII 

This  suggests  a  third  advance  which  is  called 
for,  —  the  interpretation  of  the  results  of  Religious 
Psychology.  The  appearance  of  psychology  in 
the  field  of  theology  is  no  ordinary  occurrence. 
It  seems  to  have  come  as  an  intruder  which  has 
abruptly  thrust  itself  into  the  serenity  and  se- 
clusion of  theological  thought  with  little  of 
"by-your-leave."  The  intrusion,  if  it  be  such, 

1  See  e.g.,  William  James:  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience; 
J.  B.  Pratt:  Psychology  of  Religious  Belief;  Anna  L.  Sears:  The 
Drama  of  the  Religious  Life;  E.  S.  Ames:  Psychology  of  Religious 
Experience,  etc. 


322  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

may  mean  much  to  theology,  either  in  the  way 
of  advantage  or  of  disaster.  We  have  hardly 
as  yet  begun  to  realize  what  it  means  to  have 
these  lofty  experiences,  which  for  millenniums 
have  been  regarded  as  having  a  certain  sacred 
authority  and  validity  in  themselves,  suddenly 
presented  as  the  functionings  of  a  life  organism 
in  which,  in  spite  of  their  apparently  transcen- 
dental character,  physical  and  nervous  factors 
are  seen  to  play  so  large  a  part.  Clearly  enough, 
the  rise  and  rapid  development  of  the  psycho- 
logical investigation  of  religion,  whose  progress, 
especially  in  America,  has  attracted  wide  at- 
tention, involve  consequences  which  are  by  no 
means  confined  to  the  educational  and  scien- 
tific realms.  If  the  experiences  of  regeneration 
and  sanctification,  of  faith  and  prayer,  of  strug- 
gle and  victory,  are  so  closely  related  to  the 
stages  of  physical  growth,  to  health  and  dis- 
ease, and  to  nervous  states,  what  may  not  this 
involve  as  to  the  necessity  of  modification  in 
Christian  doctrine?  The  religious  psycholo- 
gists themselves  have  not  thus  far  done  much 
in  working  out  the  theological  implications  of 
their  investigations;  nor  have  the  "old-time" 
theologians  been  forward  in  venturing  into  this 
field.  The  task  is  neither  easy  nor  inviting.  But 


CONCLUSION  323 

this    hesitation    cannot    continue;    the    conse- 
quences involved  are  too  vital. 

The  more  far-sighted  religious  psychologists, 
while  they  are  immediately  concerned  with  the 
pedagogical  and  ethical  bearings  of  their  work, 
are  not  unaware  also  of  its  philosophical  and 
theological  issues.1  They  realize  that  under- 
neath the  education  of  the  child  in  reverence, 
honesty,  social  justice,  altruism,  lie  fundamen- 
tal presuppositions  as  to  the  objective  reality 
of  God,  moral  law,  sin,  personality,  immor- 
tality. If  these  are  made  insecure  or  ignored, 
there  are  no  sufficient  foundations  upon  which 
to  build  an  ethical  social  order.  And  yet,  if 
psychology  alone  were  asked  to  answer  the 
questions  that  arise  concerning  the  nature  of 
these  presuppositions  they  would  remain  un- 
answered; for  it  is 'not  the  province  of  psychol- 
ogy to  deal  with  ultimates.  It  is  the  office  of 
theology  to  wrestle  with  these  problems  and  it 
is  her  duty  to  face  them  in  whatever  new  forms 
—  psychological  or  other  —  they  may  appear. 
Are  religious  beliefs  and  feelings  and  experi- 
ences simply  modes  of  behavior  of  our  mental 
makeup,  having  no  origin  or  objective  validity 
whatever  apart  from  their  passing  effect?  Or 

1  See  e.g.,  George  A.  Coe's  Psychology  of  Religion. 


324  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

are  these  experiences  the  wavering  and  imper- 
fect but  trustworthy  manifestations  of  a  great 
Reality  behind  our  fleeting  mental  states? 
Manifestly  this  is  a  problem  which  leads  both 
upward  into  the  realm  of  metaphysics,  where 
these  experiences  eventuate,  and  downward 
into  that  of  biology,  where  lie  their  empirical 
roots.  Theology  must  follow  in  both  these  direc- 
tions. She  must  determine  upon  what  meta- 
physical bases,  if  any,  the  psychological  phe- 
nomena of  religion  rest.  If  there  are  no  such 
bases,  then  is  not  only  theology  itself,  as  a 
science,  robbed  of  significance,  but  the  postu- 
late upon  which  the  validity  and  worth  of  relig- 
ion in  every  soul  which  cherishes  it  rests  —  i.e., 
that  there  are  spiritual  realities  corresponding 
to  religious  beliefs  and  feelings  —  is  gone.  •** 

Yet  for  theology  to  confine  herself  to  the 
metaphysical  factors  of  the  problem  would  be 
one-sided  and  ineffectual.  She  needs  to  recog- 
nize also  its  biological  elements  and  implica- 
tions. If  the  inceptions  of  religion  are  "deep- 
seated  in. our  mystic  frame"  and  if  this  mystic 
frame  goes  back  in  its  origin  to  the  potential- 
ities of  the  simple  cell,  then  there  must  be  some 
congenital  organic  kinship  between  religion  and 
life  itself  in  its  germinal  capacities  and  in  its 


CONCLUSION  325 

very  origin.  Can  this  kinship  be  traced,  to  any 
appreciable  extent?  If  so,  the  elemental  har- 
mony of  nature  and  spirit,  in  which  lies  the 
justification  of  the  religious  life,  will  have  been 
so  far  assured  that  we  shall  have  fresh  faith  in 
the  "phenomena"  of  religion  and  fresh  sugges- 
tions for  their  theological  interpretation. , 

VIII 

Religious  psychology  opens  a  new  door,  also, 
into  the  penetralium  where  psychology,  ethics, 
and  theology  meet  —  personality.  Emphasis 
upon  personality,  as  we  have  noted,  character- 
ized the  work  of  the  New  Theology  through- 
out. "Personality,"  wrote  Dr.  Munger,  "is  the 
secret  both  of  the  Christian  and  Judaic  sys- 
tems —  revelation  by  a  person."  r  All  of  the 
representatives  of  the  movement  laid  great 
stress  upon  it.  It  emerges  with  ever  greater 
insistence  and  with  ever  larger  promise  in  recent 
religious  as  well  as  ethical  and  philosophical 
thought.  By  none  of  the  writers  of  this  school, 
however,  with  the  single  exception  of  Newman 
Smyth,  is  personality  followed  in  its  psycho- 
logical and  biological  bearings.  Yet  for  its  com- 
plete vindication  and  a  fuller  understanding  of 

1  Freedom  of  Faith,  p.  1 16. 


326  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

its  relation  to  our  total  life  and  environment 
this  field  may  not  be  neglected.  We  cannot  treat 
personality  simply  as  a  separate  entity  de- 
tached from  the  empirical  order,  if  we  would 
understand  and  evaluate  it,  any  more  than  we 
can  treat  it  as  a  mere  phenomenon  in  the  order 
of  nature.  It  is  both  nuomenon  and  phenome- 
non. At  least  it  "functions"  in  the  world  of 
phenomena  and  should  be  considered  in  this 
relation  as  well  as  in  relation  to  the  purely 
personal  world. 

There  is  needed,  too,  a  deeper  understand- 
ing of  the  social  or  community  nature  of  per- 
sonality as  it  affects  theology.  The  nature  of 
the  relation  of  the  person  to  the  community 
and  the  problem  of  what  sort  of  personality  the 
community,  especially  the  church,  possesses  —  a 
problem  bequeathed  to  us  chiefly  by  the  out- 
reaching  mind  of  Professor  Royce  —  cannot  but 
have  an  important  bearing  upon  theology.  The 
subject  of  the  relation  of,  the  person  to  the  com- 
munity is  a  much  larger  one  than  has  thus  far 
come  within  the  purview  of  the  Social  Theology. 
Social  theology  has  occupied  itself  —  and  that 
most  cogently — with  the  problems  of  social  sin 
and  social  righteousness  and  the  elemental 
utterances  of  the  social  consciousness.  But  here 


CONCLUSION  .         327 

are  questions  that  go  to  the  root  of  the  nature 
of  the  personal  order, — the  character  and  ex-( 
tent  of  our  dependence  and  our  independence, 
the  relation  of  the  community  to  the  "Spirit 
of  the  Community"  x  and  of  the  "Spirit  of  the 
Community"  to  the  Spirit  above  the  community 
• —  all  of  them  questions  theological  as  well  as 
social,  ethical,  and  psychological. 

IX 

Such  adventures  into  the  deeper  meaning  of 
personality  manifestly  involve  inquiring  fur- 
ther into  the  nature  and  meaning  of  mysticism. 
Here  is  another  door  —  open  and  effectual  — 
for  theology  to  enter.  The  New  Theology  paid 
little  attention  to  the  subject  of  mysticism. 
Until  of  late,  mystical  experiences  were  re- 
garded with  prejudice,  or  at  least  with  indif- 
ference, as  outside  the  bounds  of  rational  in- 
quiry. But  all  this  has  changed.  Mysticism  has 
now  assumed  a  leading  place  in  the  study  of 
the  history,  psychology,  and  philosophy  of 
religion  on  the  part  of  non-theological  writers, 
and  theologians  themselves  are  becoming  aware 
of  its  importance.  Distinctions  are  being  drawn 
between  personal  and  impersonal,  Christian  and 

1  See  Royce:  The  Problem  of  Christianity. 


328  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

oriental,  normal  and  abnormal,  practical  and 
speculative,  mysticism,  which  throw  a  great 
deal  of  light  upon  the  nature  of  religion  itself 
and  upon  the  distinctive  truths  of  different 
religions,  including  Christianity.1  Manifestly 
theology  cannot  be  content  to  let  mysticism 
usurp  its  field  and  task,  for  that  would  leave 
religion  once  more  inchoate  and  unintelligent. 
Theology  is  bound  to  search  out  the  meta- 
physical implications  of  mysticism  —  the  objec- 
tive realities  within  the  subjective  experiences. 


*  Another  manifestation  of  the  spirit  of  modern 
life  is  replete  with  theological  values  as  they 
relate  to  personality, —  the  trend  toward  de- 
mocracy. The  outreaching  after  a  larger  democ- 
racy which  came  with  the  upheaval  of  the 
Great  War  relates  itself  closely  to  the  true 
evaluation  of  personality  and  calls  both  for 
the  socializing  and  the  personalizing  of  theol- 
ogy.2 True  democracy  is  that  social  and  political 

1  In  this  connection,  see  Von  Hugel:  The  Mystical  Element  in 
Religion;  R.  M.  Jones:  Studies  in  Mystical  Religion;  H.  C.  King: 
Theology  and  the  Social  Consciousness;  E.  Hermann:  The  Meaning 
and  Value  of  Mysticism;  J.  W.  Buckham:  Mysticism  and  Modern 
Life. 

3  See  the  well-known  books  of  Professors  Rauschenbusch 
(especially  A  Theology  for  tkt  Social  Gospel),  Peabody,  and  Dr. 


CONCLUSION  329 

order  in  which  the  individual  person  is  most 
highly  valued  and  is  brought  to  his  highest 
development  and  capacity,  for  his  own  sake 
and  for  the  sake  of  the  whole.  In  other  words, 
democracy  honors  the  person.  Such  evaluation 
and  development  of  personality  is  impossible 
without  religion,  and  religion  is  incompetent 
without  a  theology.  Unless  Christian  theology 
recognizes  and  interprets  both  personal  and 
social  realities  and  values,  it  fails  to  be  true  to 
the  religion  it  seeks  to  represent. 

So  far  as  relates  to  the  ethical  nature  of 
personality,  considerable  advance  has  been 
made.  Much  was  done,  and  ably  done,  by  the 
New  Theology  toward  ethicizing  Christian  doc- 
trines. Indeed  that  was  part  of  its  personalizing 
instinct  and  tendency;  but  it  is  not  enough. 
The  personalizing  of  theology  means  the  ethi- 
cizing of  theology,  but  it  means  much  more.  It 
means  going  deeper,  into  that  in  personality 
which  at  once  underlies  and  transcends  — though 
it  does  not  override  —  the  ethical.  There  has 
always  been  a  tendency  in  ethics  toward  ab- 
straction, toward  the  mechanical  detachment 

Gladden;  also  C.  H.  Dickinson:  "The  Christian  Reconstruction 
of  Social  Life";  and  Shailer  Mathews:  "The  Social  Gospel,"  and 
"  The  Spiritual  Challenge  to  Democracy,"  Constructive  Quarterly ', 
September,  1917. 


330  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

of  a  moral  quality  from  its  possessor  which  is 
manifestly  to  a  certain  extent  depersonalizing. 
Duty,  virtue,  goodness, —  these  have  been 
erected  into  abstract  entities,  though  they  could 
not  exist  apart  from  persons.  A  truer  under- 
standing of  personality  requires  that  ethics  as 
well  as  theology  be,  so  to  speak,  repersonalized. 

XI 

The  resolving  of  the  quick  and  vital  realities 
of  character  into  attachable  and  detachable 
qualities  for  a  long  time  stood  in  the  way  of  a 
true  understanding  of  Jesus  Christ,  especially 
as  it  encouraged  the  severing  of  His  human  and 
divine  attributes.  We  have  seen  how  the  New 
Theology  came  to  revolt  against  this  arbitrary 
separation  of  the  human  and  divine  in  Christ. 
Yet  it  did  not  come  to  a  full  realization  of  how 
incomparable  a  key  personality  affords  to  the 
understanding  of  the  unique  place  and  power 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  New  Theology,  in  its 
Christocentric  character,  threw  great  emphasis 
upon  the  Christ  in  His  aspect  as  World  Re- 
deemer. The  incarnation  was  its  major  doctrine. 
It  caught  the  inestimable  significance  of  the 
union  of  God  and  man  in  the  God-man,  "him- 
self man";  but  it  did  not  fully  realize  the  po- 


CONCLUSION  331 

tency  of  personality  as  a  concept  through  which 
to  interpret  and  realize  this  union.  For  it  did 
not  clearly  recognize  how,  at  the  very  heart  of 
personality  itself,  wherever  it  exists,  and  what- 
ever its  stage  of  development,  the  Divine  is 
implicit  —  its  very  "seed"  and  "spark,"  as  the 
Christian  mystics  saw.  Nor  did  it  understand 
as  clearly  as  we  are  now  able  to  do,  how  Jesus 
Christ,  as  the  Supreme  Ideal  of  personality, 
stirs  and  summons  and  invigorates  the  nascent 
personality  in  others.1 

Moreover,  while  the  New  Theology  caught 
very  clearly  the  sense  of  the  union  of  history  and 
experience,  of  the  temporal  and  the  eternal,  in 
Christ,  it  did  not  press  on  in  this  direction  far 
enough  to  develop  a  philosophy  of  history  in 
which  Christ  —  the  Christ  of  the  Spirit  —  so 
blends  and  unites  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  to 
reveal  the  "mystery,"  as  Paul  called  it,  of  the 
whole  vast  unfolding  drama  of  the  ages.  The 
high  task  of  writing  a  history  of  redemption 
which  haunted  the  mind  of  Jonathan  Edwards 
in  his  later  years,  which  in  fact  he  attempted, 

1  See  e.g.,  W.  E.  Orchard:  The  Necessity  of  Christ;  H.  M.  Du 
Bose:  The  Consciousness  of  Jesus;  W.  P.  Du  Bose:  "Christ,  the 
Solution  of  Human  Life,"  Constructive  Quarterly,  vol.  V,  p.  201; 
J.  W.  Buckham:  "The  Enlarging  Place  of  Christ  in  Modern 
Thought,"  Constructive  Quarterly,  vol.  VI,  p.  523. 


332  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

but  which,  with  his  provincial  knowledge  of 
history,  he  could  not  adequately  accomplish, 
has  yet  to  be  fulfilled.1 

XII 

The  doctrine  of  God  as  well  as  that  of  Christ 
needs  release  from  scholastic  and  conventional 
conceptions  and  completer  personalizing.  No- 
where has  the  scholastic  habit  of  mind  worked 
more  confusion  than  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Divine  attributes.  The  erection  of  the  attri- 
butes into  separate  and  sometimes  conflicting 
entities  replaced  the  warm  and  convincing 
truth  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood  as  taught  by 
Jesus  with  a  Deity  who  was  little  more  than  a 
mechanical  bundle  of  attributes.  In  this  process 
not  only  personal  but  semi-personal  and  some- 
times impersonal  attributes  were  attached 
without  discrimination  to  the  Divine  Being. 
The  result  was  an  Intellectual  Construct 
rather  than  a  Living  God.  The  times  of  this 
ignorance  God  "winked  at" — as  at  many  an- 
other form  of  ignorance  that  has  passed  for 
wisdom  —  but  now  there  is  urgent  need  for  a 

1  Probably  no  modern  theologians  have  perceived  so  compre- 
hendingly  the  scope  and  movement  of  such  an  interpretation  of 
history  as  Principal  Fairbairn  in  England  and  George  A.  Gordon  in 
America. 


CONCLUSION  333 

rational  and  reverent  attempt  to  understand 
something  of  what  Divine  Personality  means. 

This  involves  a  final  break  with  the  doctrine 
of  autocratic  Sovereignty  which  has  been  so 
long  dominant  both  in  Roman  Catholic  and 
Protestant  theology.  A  Sovereign  Ruler,  arbi- 
trarily determining  events  and  destinies,  "ac- 
cording to  his  own  pleasure"  is  an  unethical 
and  hence  an  impersonal  Being.  He  lacks  the 
essential  nature  of  the  Father  of  Spirits  which 
makes  the  Christian  doctrine  of  God  what  it  is. 
It  might  appear,  at  first  thought,  as  if  a  su- 
preme Sovereign,  an  arbitrarily  active  Will, 
constituted  a  peculiarly  personal  God;  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  such  a  one-sided,  arbitrary, 
irresponsible  Being  falls  short  of  true  person- 
ality in  just  that  degree  that  He  is  autocratic, 
unethical,  non-amenable  to  obligation  to  His 
subjects.  Such  a  God  is,  indeed,  not  a  Person  at 
all,  but  a  Logical  Construct,  a  depersonalized 
Monarch,  robbed  of  His  true  character  by  the 
requirements  of  a  mechanical,  unethical  con- 
ception. 

The  movement  of  the  New  Theology  toward 
a  wholly  personal  doctrine  of  God  needs  to  be 
carried  forward  toward  completion.  The  way 
lies  through  a  deeper  and  fuller  understanding 


334  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

of  our  own  human  personality  —  "Through 
Man  to  God,"  as  Dr.  Gordon  phrased  it.  To 
apprehend  the  Supreme  Personality  we  have  to 
ask,  What  are  the  limitations  attaching  to 
human  personality, —  conditioned  by  its  very 
nature  as  "finite"  and  developmental,  and 
hedged  in  by  an  environment  that  is  not  only 
imperfect  but  evolutionary?  What  is  the  differ- 
ence between  individuality  and  pure  personal- 
ity?1 When  the  limitations,  which  are,  by  the 
testimony  of  our  own  deeper  consciousness,  not 
essential  to  pure  personality,  are  conceived  as 
removed,  the  finite  self  confronts  —  God,  its 
ultimate  Source  and  End,  without  whom  its 
own  existence  as  personal  is  a  complete  riddle. 
From  human  personality  to  Divine  Personality, 
from  the  incomplete  self  to  the  Complete  Self, 
is  no  novel  pathway.  It  is  implicit  in  the 
structure  of  mind  itself  and  it  has  been  trodden 
for  centuries  by  unconscious  feet. 

XIII 

Granted  that  Pure  Personality  is  the  concep- 
tion of  God  toward  which  theology  is  tending, 
what  does  this  involve  as  to  His  relation  to 
nature?  Is  God,  then,  wholly  apart  from  the 
1  See  Personality  and  the  Christian  Ideal,  ch.  III. 


CONCLUSION  335 

outer  world?  Must  we  conclude  that  nature 
neither  proceeds  from  nor  reveals  Him?  Does 
the  doctrine  of  God  as  Spiritual  Person  oblige 
us  to  detach  Him  wholly  from  nature  and  thus 
leave  the  external  world  either  an  illusion  or  an 
independent  and  alien  reality? 

This  is  a  conclusion  which  Christian  theology 
has  never  been  willing  to  adopt,  even  in  its 
utmost  perplexity.  The  first  article  of  its  oldest 
creed  affirms  the  contrary, —  "I  believe  in  God 
the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth," —  and  theology  has  persistently  main- 
tained this  conviction  in  the  face  both  of  inner 
questioning  and  outer  opposition.  To  be  sure, 
belief  in  a  Perfect  God  who  is  the  author  of  an 
imperfect  world  appears  to  involve  a  contra- 
diction, or  at  least  a  paradox.  Yet  it  is  one  of 
those  paradoxes  in  which  hides  a  profound 
truth;  at  least,  so  Christian  faith  has  always 
felt. 

Christianity  has,  indeed,  never  seen  any  suf- 
ficient reason  why  Perfect  Personality  should 
not  give  rise  to  an  imperfect  material  universe 
provided  it  serves  its  end.  Human  personality  is 
embodied  in  a  physical  investiture  which  is  at 
once  a  marvelous  yet  an  imperfect  medium  and 
expression  of  itself.  Is  it  otherwise  with  the 


336  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Divine  Person?  Goethe  called  the  physical 
world  the  garment  of  God.  If  so,  it  is  a  beautiful 
garment,  but  an  imperfect  one.  Why?  That  is 
a  puzzling  question,  yet  not  wholly  dark  when 
one  considers  that  the  universe  must  serve  at 
the  same  time  as  the  medium  of  the  Perfect 
Personality  and  of  our  own  striving,  imperfect, 
developing  personalities,  as  well  as  the  home 
and  theater  of  action  of  millions  of  lives  lower 
than  ours  that  are  pressing  toward  their  own 
types  of  self-fulfillment.  Both  they  and  we  — 
so  far  as  our  physical  lives  are  concerned  —  are 
parts  of  the  cosmos,  life  of  its  life,  and  flesh  of 
its  flesh;  and  yet  we  all  must  use  it  —  as  does 
God  Himself  —  as  our  means  of  self-expression 
and  self-communication.  What  could  we  expect 
of  such  a  universal  medium  of  personal  and 
sub-personal  life  except  that  which  we  find  in 
the  world  about  us, —  imperfection  shot  through 
with  perfection,  limitation  lying  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Unlimited,  freedom  held  in  the  hand  of 
law,  death  swallowed  up  of  life?  In  other  words, 
a  universe  of  divine  order  and  of  free  personal 
initiative  and  progress  could  hardly  be  other 
than  correspondingly  paradoxical,  malleable, 
many-sided, —  responsive  at  the  same  time  to 
the  Perfect  Person,  disclosing  Himself  in  reve- 


CONCLUSION  337 

lations  of  immanent  beauty  and  sublimity,  and 
also  mirroring  the  struggles  and  aspirations,  yes, 
and  the  lapses  and  failures,  of  multitudes  of 
imperfect  natures  moving  toward  their  myriad 
self-willed  yet  divinely-embraced  ends. 

XIV 

As  a  solution  for  the  problem  of  the  imper- 
fections of  the  world,  the  now  somewhat  famil- 
iar and  apparently  growing  notion,  popularized 
by  H.  G.  Wells,  of  a  finite  and  developing  God 
producing  a  blundering  but  improving  universe 
as  He  gains  skill  and  direction  by  experiment 
and  conquest,  escapes  some  difficulties  but 
raises  more.1  The  fatal  defect  of  this  theory  is 
that  it  fails  to  account  for  the  idea,  or  rather 
the  intuition,  of  perfection.  The  ontological 
argument,  or  that  which  undergirds  it,  will  not 
down.  If  you  say  the  idea  of  perfection  is  only 
a  regulative  principle  of  the  mind,  like  time 
and  space,  you  have  not  disposed  of  the  ques- 
tion whence  and  why  it  arises. 

1  See  e.g.,  H.  G.  Wells:  God  the  Invisible  King;  H.  A.  Over- 
street:  "The  Democratic  Conception  of  God,"  Hibbert  Journal, 
vol.  XI,  p.  394;  F.  H.  Foster:  "Some  Theistic  Implications  of 
Bergson's  Philosophy,"  American  Journal  of  Theology,  vol. 
XXII,  p.  2;  R.  H.  Doterer:  "The  Argument  for  a  Finite  Theology" 
and  "The  Doctrine  of  a  Finite  God  in  War  Time  Thought," 
Hibbert  Journal,  vol.  XVI,  p.  415. 


338  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

Can  perfection  be  a  fugitive  notion  without 
source,  content,  or  reality?  Or  does  it  originate 
in  an  All-Perfect  from  whom  the  imperfect 
selves  receive  origin  and  ideal,  not  in  order 
that  they  may  remain  imperfect  but  that  they 
may  approximate  perfection  in  the  only  way 
that  gives  their  striving  meaning  and  worth  — 
free  self-realization  ? x  Whether  the  origin  of 
ourselves  and  of  our  world  in  a  Perfect  Person 
be  demonstrable  or  not,  it  is  a  conviction  that 
burns  at  the  heart  of  Christianity  and,  so  long 
as  theology  continues  Christian,  it  is  likely  in 
some  form  to  burn  on.  The  problem  which  it 
leaves  —  of  how  an  imperfect  world  can  have 
its  origin  in  Perfect  Person  —  will  continue  to 
exercise  Christian  thought;  but  the  more  we 
learn  of  the  relation  of  personality  to  its  me- 
dium of  expression,  the  less  difficulty  will  there 
be,  perhaps,  in  understanding  something  of  the 
strange  contradictions  of  the  cosmos  in  which 
we  find  ourselves.  The  concept  "God"  is  ex- 
ceedingly inclusive.  If  at  its  center  lies  person- 
ality—  "Oh,  heart  I  made,  a  Heart  beats  here!" 

1  That  the  Perfect  Self  originates  the  imperfect  selves,  not 
that  they  may  return  and  be  absorbed  into  Itself,  but  that  they 
may  strive  toward  perfection  for  themselves,  is  at  least  the  faith 
that  best  conserves  personality,  human  and  divine.  See  T.  R. 
Glover:  "Progress  in  Religion,"  Constructive  Quarterly,  June, 
1918,  p.  311. 


CONCLUSION  339 

—  at  its  circumference  it  may  well  harbor  forms 
of  revelation  which  we  term  impersonal  and 
sometimes  brand  as  pantheistic,  but  which 
appear  otherwise  when  irradiated  by  the  cen- 
tral light  of  Perfect  Personality. 


xv 

Such  are  some  of  the  issues  and  problems 
that  await  a  progressive  theology.  They  are 
both  profound  and  strenuous,  yet  attractive  to 
the  spirit  of  Christianity.  In  coping  with  them 
American  theology  will  have  a  large  and  in- 
creasing share.  ; 

So  far  from  being  a  decadent  science,  Chris- 
tian theology  is  yet  in  its  youth.  It  will  not  be 
permanently  set  aside  by  any  other  interest, 
however  immediate  or  absorbing.  Holding  fast 
to  the  conviction  that  the  universe  has  meaning 
and  unity,  that  there  are  ultimate  and  eternal 
truths,  and  that  it  is  possible  to  know  some- 
thing of  them,  abandoning  the  idea  of  finality 
but  not  that  of  progress,  with  a  deeper  sense  of 
personal  and  social  values,  it  will  press  forward 
more  humbly  but  more  hopefully  than  before 
its  deserved  humiliation  toward  the  goal  of  its 
high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus.  For  of  all  the  sci- 


340  PROGRESSIVE  RELIGIOUS  THOUGHT 

ences  theology  is  essentially  the  freshest  as  well 
as  the  oldest,  the  most  progressive  as  well  as 
the  most  permanent. 


THE   END 


INDEXES 


INDEX  OF  NAMES 


Abbott,  Ezra,  45. 

Abbott,  Lyman,  60,  287. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  50. 

Ainslee,  P.,  291. 

Allen,  A.  V.  G.,  5,  40,  HI,  188, 

197,  290,  302. 
Ames,  E.  S.,  291. 
Aristotle,  92,  93. 
Arnold,  Thomas,  167. 
Athanasius,  90,  200. 
Augustine,  7,  78,  90,  112,  265. 

Bacon,  B.  W.,  55,  296. 

Bacon,  Leonard,  31. 

Bacon,  L.  W.,  292. 

Bade,  W.  F.,  289. 

Ballou,  Hosea,  45. 

Barnes,  Albert,  291. 

Barton,  G.  A.,  292. 

Bascom,  John,  49,  226. 

Beckwith,  C.  A.,  289. 

Beecher,  Edward,  32. 

Beecher,  H.  W.,  32*,  63,  138. 

Bernard,  214. 

Bonaventura,  78. 

Bosworth,  E.  I.,  297. 

Bowen,  Francis,  49. 

Bowne,  B.  P.,  46,  49,  87,  194, 

302. 

Bradford,  A.  H.,  288. 
Brierly,  J.,  238. 
Briggs,  C.  A.,  298. 
Brooks,  Phillips,  5,  40,  41,  43, 

44,  86,  HI. 

Brown,  Charles  R.,  252,  296. 
Brown,  Francis,  298. 
Brown,  William  A.,  272, 291, 299, 

302,  314. 

Browning,  Robert,  80,  219. 
Brownson,  O.  A.,  234. 


Burns,  Robert,  140. 
Burton,  E.  D.,  302. 
Bushnell,  Horace,  4*,  55,  56,  57, 
59,    87,    88,   132,    226,    273, 

275- 
Butler,  Joseph,  90,  262. 

Cadman,  S.  P.,  290. 

Calvin,  John,  90. 

Campbell,  J.  M.,  298. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  141. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  169,  170. 

Case,  S.  J.,  302. 

Chadwick,  J.  W.,  5. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  5,  41,  43,  87. 

Chauncy,  Charles,  44. 

Cheseborough,  A.  S.,  31. 

Christ,  25,  29,  33,  35,  36,  38,  40, 
42,65,80,82,86,99,102,129, 
154,  156,  200-03,  207. 

Churchill,  J.  W.,  191. 

Clarke,  J.  F.,  48. 

Clarke,  Wm.  N.,  87. 

Clement,  7,  200. 

Coe,  George  A.,  323. 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  7,  47,  48,  91. 

Cotton,  John,  43,  86. 

Curtis,  G.  W.,  51. 

Curtis,  O.  S.,  302. 

Dale,  Robert,  238. 
Dante,  78,  80. 
Dewey,  John,  194. 
Dickinson,  C.  H.,  6,  329. 
Dike,  S.  W.,  194. 
Dinsmore,  C.  A.,  289. 
Dorner,  I.  A.,  4,  267,  309. 
Doterer,  R.  H.,  337. 
Du  Bose,  H.  M.,  331. 
Du  Bose,  W.  P.,  290. 


344 


INDEX  OF  NAMES 


Edwards,  Jonathan,  6,  7,  42,  87, 
102,  in,  135,  138,  188,  197, 
212,  265,  272,  275,  307,  311, 

331- 

Eliot,  John,  57. 
Ely,  Richard  T.,  252. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  46,  48,   145, 

159,  312. 
Everett,  C.  C.,  194,  300. 

Fairbairn,  A.  M.,  101,  332. 
Faunce,  W.  H.  P.,  291. 
Fenn,  W.  W.,  300. 
Fichte,  92. 

Fisher,  George  P.,  295,  296. 
Fiske,  John,  50. 
Fosdick,  H.  E.,  291. 
Foster,  F.  H.,  5,  297,  337. 
Foster,  G.  B.,  302. 

Garman,  C.  E.,  49. 

Gilmore,  G.  W.,  293. 

Gladden,   Washington,   48,   60, 

217*,  329. 
Glover,T.R.,338. 
Goodwin,  H.  M.,  31. 
Gordon,  George  A.,  60,  80*,  194, 

203,  311,  332. 
Gray,  Asa,  50. 
Gulliver,  J.  P.,  192. 
Guth,W.W.,29. 

Hale,  E.  E.,  252. 
Hall,  C.  C.,  291,  298,  300. 
Hamilton,  Sir  William,  262. 
Harnack,  Adolf,  313,  314. 
Harper,  W.  R.,  291,  302. 
Harris,  George,  60,  191. 
Harris,  Samuel,  77. 
Harris,  W.  T.,  12,  50,  194. 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  51,  79. 
Hedge,  Frederic,  300. 
Hegel,  92. 

Henderson,  C.  R.,  252. 
Hermann,  E.,  328. 

Hickok,L.P.,46,49. 
Hincks,  E.  Y.,  192. 


Hocking,  W.  E.,  300. 

Hodge,  Charles,  87. 

Hodges,  George,  252,  290,  302. 

Holmes,  J.,  I. 

Hopkins,  Mark,  46,  49,  225. 

Hopkins,  Samuel,  42,  138. 

Hosmer,  F.  L.,  317. 

Howison,  G.  H.,  46,  50. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  215. 

Hume,  Robert,  270. 

Hyde,  W.  D.,  194,  252,  289. 

ackson,  S.  M.,  293. 
ames,  William,  47,  135,  321. 
efferson,   C.  E.,  289. 
ohnson,  F.  H.,  194. 
ohnson,  Samuel,  46. 
ones,  R.  M.,  292,  328. 

Kant,  92,  196,  213,  300. 

Kent,  C.  F,  296. 

King,  H.  C,  252,  256,  297,  328. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  251. 

Knapp,  Jacob,  219. 

Knox,  G.  W.,  298. 

Ladd,  G.  T.,  46. 
Lasselle,  F.,  251. 
Le  Conte,  Joseph,  194. 
Lessing,  198,  199,  272. 
Lodge,  Sir  Oliver,  230. 
Lotze,  297. 
Lowell,  J.  R.,  51. 
Luther,  Martin,  90,  214. 
Lyman,  A.  J.,  289. 
Lyman,  E.  W,,  289. 

Mabie,  H.  C.,  291. 

Mabie,  H.  W.,  288. 

Macrine,  214. 

Mansel,  H.  L.,  262. 

Marsh,  James,  46,  47,  48,  91. 

Martineau,  James,  141. 

Marx,  Karl,  251. 

Mathews,  Shailer,  252,  329. 

Maurice,  F.  D.,  59,  63,  90,  251. 

McBee,  S.,  301. 


INDEX  OF  NAMES 


345 


McConnell,  F.  J.,  291. 
McCosh,  James,  116. 
McGiffert,  A.  C.,  8,  298. 
McKenzie,  Alexander,  60,  190, 

196. 

Merriman,  Daniel,  60. 
Micou,  Paul,  290. 
Mills,  Samuel  J.,  151. 
Moore,  E.  C.,  300. 
Moore,  G.  F.,  192,  300. 
Morrison,  C.  C.,  291. 
Mulford,  E.,  290. 
Munger,  T.  T.,  5,  6,  24,  32,  55*, 

88,  140,  273,  311,  325. 

Nash,  H.  S.,  302. 
Nevin,  J.  W.,  299. 
Newman,  J.  H.,  249. 

Orchard,  W.E.,  331. 
Origen,  78,  107,  133,  200. 
Overstreet,  H.  A.,  337. 

Paley,  William,  262. 
Palmer,  Frederic,  205,  207. 
Palmer,  G.  H.,  46,  49,  139,  194. 
Park,   Edwards,    87,    147,    191, 
263,  264,  265,  268,  269,  311. 
Parker,  E.  P.,  31. 
Paul,  24,  27,  33,  126,  206,  313, 

331- 

Peabody,  A.  P.,  194. 
Peabody,  F.  G.,  252,  255,  300, 

328. 

Perry,  Bliss,  139,  194. 
Phelps,  Austin,  147,  263. 
Plato,  91,93,  135,  265. 
Porter,  F.  C.,  296. 
Porter,  Noah,  46, 49. 
Pratt,  J.  B.,  231. 

Rausch,  F.  A.,  299. 
Rauschenbusch,     Walter,     163, 

252,  256,  302,  328. 
Reid,  Thomas,  262. 
Ricardo,  David,  233. 
Rice,  W.  N.,  50.    " 


Riley,  Woodbridge,  5,  48. 
Robertson,  F.  W.,  59,  61,  147, 

226. 

Robinson,  E.  G.,  291. 
Ropes,  J.  H.,  300. 
Royce,  Josiah,  47,  49,  230,  301, 

326,  327. 

Schaff,  Philip,  293. 
Schleiermacher,    IO2,    196,    198, 

199,  272. 

Sears,  A.  L.,  321. 
Seelye,  J.  H.,  46. 
Shedd,  W.  G.  T.,  48,  87. 
Sheldon,  H.  C,  302. 
Sherman,  C.  C,  293. 
Shields,  C.  W.,  46. 
Shumaker,  E.  E.,  289. 
Smith,  Adam,  233. 
Smith,  G.  B.,  302. 
Smith,  H.  B.,  291,  298. 
Smith,  J.  M.  P.,  302. 
Smyth,  E.  C,  60,  in,  186*,  275. 
Smyth,  Newman,  60,  204,  260*, 

325- 

Spencer,  Herbert,  263. 
Starbuck,  C.  C.,  194. 
Stearns,  L.  F.,  321. 
Stevens,  George  B.,  6,  296. 
Stevenson,  R.  L.,  146. 
Stewart,  Dugald,  262. 
Stowe,  C.  E.,  147. 
Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  9. 
Strong,  Augustus,  77,  302. 
Strong,  Josiah,  252. 
Swedenborg,    291. 
Swing,  Leonard,  45. 

Taylor,  Graham,  252. 
Taylor,  J.  P.,  192. 
Taylor,  N.  W.,  13,  58,  90, 138. 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  51,  80,  198, 

219. 

Terry,  M.  S.,  291. 
Thayer,  J.  H.,  45,  300. 
Tholuck,  F.  A.  G.,  266. 
Thoreau,  H.  D.,  159. 


346 


Tillett,  W.  F.,  291. 
Torrey,  C.  C.,  296. 
Torrey,  H.  A.  P.,  46,  49. 
Torrey,  Joseph,  46. 
Toy,  C.  H.,  300. 
Toynbee,  A.,  163. 
Tucker,  W.  J.,  60, 145*,  192,  252. 
Twitchell,  Joseph,  31. 
Tyler,  J.  M,  50. 

Van  Dyke,  Henry,  291. 
Von  Hiigel,  328. 
Vose,  J.  G.,  60. 


INDEX  OF  NAMES 


Walker,  Williston,  6,  296. 
Ward,  W.  H.,  52,  60. 
Wayland,  Francis,  291. 
Wells,  H.  G.,  230,  337. 
Whiton,  James,  in,  288. 
Whittier,  J.  G.,  51,  292. 
Willett,  H.  L.,  291. 
Witherspoon,  John,  46. 
Woodruff,  F.  E,   192. 
Woods,  Robert  A.,  163,  164. 
Woolman,  John,  292. 

Youtz,  H.  A.,  290. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Absolute,  103, 108,  124,  262. 
American    Board    Controversy, 

152,  193,  268,  270. 
American  Theology,  41, 100, 194, 

290,  301,  303,  307,  309,  339. 
Andover  Creed,  208-10. 
Anthropomorphism,  108. 
Applied    Christianity,    220-22, 

232,  251. 

Apostles'  Creed,  212. 
Arminianism,  307. 
Atonement,  30,  38,  228,  230, 257, 

318.. 

Augustimanism,  105,  133. 
Authority,  157,  158,  176. 

Bible,  20,  37,  158,  218,  231,  248, 

265,  288. 
Biblical  Criticism,  127,  157,  228, 

267. 

Biblical  Theology,  266. 
Biology,  280,  324. 
Brotherhood,  231,  244,  253,  256, 

257- 

Calvinism,  8,  25,  32,  36,  69,  138, 
312. 

Christianity,  8,  10,  26,  44,  81, 
82,  105,  107,  114,  120,  136, 
149,  154,  160,  194,  207,  274, 
312,  313,  314,  315,  320,  328, 

339- 
Christocentric,    38,     101,    102, 

200-02,  206,  298,  330. 
Christology,  28,  196,  200,  202, 

296. 
Church,  71,  72,  73,  74,  132,  149, 

162,  176,  188,  230,  236,  246, 

247,  248. 
Church  Unity,  285,  286. 


Citizenship,  167,  171. 
College,  164,  165,  166,  188. 
Courage,    150,    151,    170,    172, 

236,  285. 

Creeds,  41,  207-12,  232,  275. 
Criticism,  127,  128. 
Critique  of  Theology,  13-16. 

Darwinism,  268. 
Death,  270,  281,  282,  336. 
Decrees,  35,  104,  105. 
Democracy,  169,  171,  181,  328, 

329- 

Depravity,  113. 
Determinism,  134. 
Development,  II,  24,  25, 44, 195, 

310-14. 

Divinity,  16,  17,  311. 
Doctrine  of  God,  109,  332-36. 
Dualism,  129, 130. 
Duality,  130,  270. 

Education,  69,  82,  213,  323. 

Eschatology,  69. 

Eternal,  123,  142. 

Eternity,  142. 

Ethics,  69,  275,  329,  330. 

Evil,  10,  129,  130,  240. 

Evolution,  39,  68,  171,  278,  281, 

308,  310. 
Experience,  12,  32,  93,  94,  124, 

131,222-24,275,  284, 320,  321. 

Faith,  20,  70,  81,  105,  124,  125, 
126,  199,  274,  275,  279,  282, 
322. 

Fatherhood,  125,  126,  230,  253, 
256,  257,  332. 

Feeling,  137,  267. 

Finality,  315,  339. 


348 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Freedom,  9,  25,  60,  61,  134-36, 

187,  195,  336. 
Future  Probation,  204-07. 
Future  Punishment,  38,  45. 

Greatness,  179. 

Greek  theology,  67,  255. 

History,  3,  89,  90,  114,  195,  196, 

206. 

Holy  Spirit,  37,  94. 
Humanity,  109,  113,  155,  158, 

204,  214. 
Human  Nature,  10,  41,  42,  115, 

148. 

Ideal,  114,  115,  120,  121,  129, 

222,   331- 

Imagination,  13,  137,  138,  139. 
Immanence,  68,  71,  206,  288. 
Immediacy,  199. 
Immortality,     103,     131,    231, 

232. 
Incarnation,  99,  103,  157,  274, 

318,330. 

Internationalism,  244,  317. 
Intuition,  7,  12,  17,  37,  199,  275, 

T  33.7-.  . 
Intuitivism,  7,  49. 

Kingdom  of  God,  30,  225,  230, 
2SS»3I3,  317. 

Labor  Problem,  177,  235,  236. 
Language,  13,.  14,  15. 
Literature,  51,  62,  64,  81,  139- 

41,  264. 

Logic,  13,  14,  67,  69,  105,  265. 
Logos,  20,  42. 

Miracle,  22,  37,  117. 
Missionary  Motive,  162. 
Modern  Spirit,  161,  183. 
Mystery,  44,  122,  123,  130,  131, 

141,142,157,331- 
Mysticism,  7,  16,  58,  123,  327, 
328. 


Natural  Theology,  117,  281,  283. 

Nature,  20,  25,  116,  117,  135, 
282,  325. 

Neo-Platonism,  266. 

New  England  Theology,  16,  21, 
25,  95,  97,  104,  132,  266,  272. 

New  Orthodoxy,  95,  96. 

New  Testament,  126,  234,  252, 
300. 

New  Theology,  34,  55,  60,  62, 
63,  66,  69,  81,  82,  89,  96,  in, 
113,  145,  200,  201,  202,  219, 
272,  276,  308,  311,  314,  319, 

325,  330- 

New  Thought,  292. 
Nicene  Theology,  203. 
Nurture,  Christian,  9. 

Old  Theology,  68,  69,  104,  252. 
Optimism,  141,  231,  315-18. 
Originality,  29,  98,  136,  137. 
Orthodoxy,  35,  60,  161,  187. 

Peace,  171,  172,  243,  244. 
Perfection,  41,  337,  338. 
Personality,  21,  22,  24,  108-10, 

145,  276-80,  325-30,  331,  334- 

3.6,  339- 
Philosophy,  10,45-50, 89,  91,  93, 

124,  262. 

Poetry,  51,  140,  249. 
Prayer,  38,  322. 
Preaching,  121,  173,  174. 
Probation,  69,  213. 
Progress,  4, 44, 293, 295, 298, 3 10. 
Progressive  Orthodoxy,  198,  201, 

206. 

Providence,  19,  37. 
Psychology,  273,  276,  321-24. 
Public-mindedness,  164,  167. 
Pulpit,  33,    60,    119,    120,    121, 

157,  239,  338. 

Quakerism,  292. 

Rationalism,  12,  14,  16,  42,  123, 
199,  271,  273. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


349 


Reality,  8,   114,  123,  127,   142, 

158,  262,  263,  324. 
Reason,  20,  68,   105,   161,  206, 

283. 
Redemption,  19,  106,  135,  256, 

Religion,  4,  9,  71,  98,  114,  165, 

239,  319,  32i. 

Religious  Encyclopedias,  293. 
Religious  Periodicals,  294. 
Resurrection,  118,  288. 
Revelation,  20,    no,   115,   206, 

283,  3",  339- 

Science,  24,  50,  51,  95,  228,  268, 

280-84. 

Scripture,  45,  292. 
Sermon,  62,  64,  65,  66,  120,  139, 

250,  264. 

Settlement  Work,  163,  164. 
Social  Gospel,  157,  254. 
Social  Theology,  251,  257,  326. 
Solidarity,  160,  162,  257. 
Sovereignty,  333. 
Spirit,  II,  20,99,327,  331. 
Statesmanship,  153,  164. 
Supernatural,  20-23. 
Sympathy,  172,  174,  176,  178. 
System,  12,  15,  18,  20,  58,  132. 
Systemism,  3,  13,  67,  132. 


Tainted  Money,  239-41. 
Teleology,  281. 
Theodicy,  99,  103,  107. 
Theological  Reviews,  193,  194, 

301,  3°3- 
Theological    Schools,    71,    295- 

302. 
Theology,  3,  4,  9,  12-18,  51,  62, 

72,  77,  82,  89,  98,  119,  120, 

124,  132,  133,  228,  294,  324, 

34?. 

Trimtananism,  203. 
Trinity,  37,  110-12,  196. 
Tri  theism,  113. 
Truth,  13,  1 6,  20,  42,  198,  270. 

Unconditioned,  263. 
Unitarianism,  42,  43,  102,  292, 

308,  312. 

Unitarians,  38,  42. 
Unity,  9,  12,  25,  112,  130,  133, 

136,  158-62,  278,  279. 
Universalism,      44,     106,     107, 

308. 
University,  70-76,  160,  165. 

Voters,  242. 

Westminster  Confession,  35. 
Will,  105,  134. 


INDEX  OF  VOLUMES 


Containing  the  cited  volumes  of  the  authors  chiefly  discussed. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL: 

Christ  in  Theology,  13,  15, 17, 

18. 

Christian  Nurture,  8-12. 
Forgiveness  and  Law,  30. 
God  in  Christ,  13,  14,  15,  16, 

18,  19. 

Moral  Uses  of  Dark  Things, 

23- 
Nature  and  the  Supernatural, 

19,  20,  21,  22,  23,  26. 

Sermons  on  Living  Subjects, 

27. 
The  Vicarious    Sacrifice,    26, 

28,  30. 

WASHINGTON  GLADDEN: 

Being  a  Christian,  226. 

Burning  Questions,  227. 

How  much  is  Left  of  the  Old 
Doctrines?  227,  230. 

Present  Day  Theology,  227, 
228,  231. 

Recollections,  217,  221,  224, 
225,  226,  235,  236,  237,  245, 
248,  249,  252,  253. 

Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Present 
Age,  230,  232,  234,  235. 

Social  Facts  and  Forces,  235, 
236. 

Social  Salvation,  239. 

The  Christian  League  of  Con- 
necticut, 243. 

The  Church  and  the  King- 
dom, 230,  231. 

The  Cosmopolis  Club,  241. 

The  Forks  of  the  Road,  244. 

The  Interpreter,  250. 

The  New  Idolatry,  246. 


The  Practice  of  Immortality, 

232. 
Tools  and  the  Man,  232,  233, 

234,  235,  238,  246. 
Ultima  Veritas,  250. 
Where  does  the  Sky  Begin? 

250. 
Who  Wrote  the  Bible?  228, 

231. 

GEORGE  A.  GORDON: 

Aspects  of  the  Infinite  Mys- 
tery, 123,  125,  131,  139, 
142. 

Immortality  and  the  New 
Theodicy,  103,  106,  115, 
127,  134. 

Religion  and  Miracle,  117, 
118. 

Revelation    and    the    Ideal, 


115. 

he  Chris 


The  Christ  of  To-day,  86,  93, 

99,  102,  120. 
The  New  Epoch    for  Faith, 

106,  113,  114,  124. 
The  Witness  to  Immortality, 

103,  141. 
Through  Man  to  God,   107, 

109,  115,  116. 
Ultimate      Conceptions       of 

Faith,  89,  94,  105,  107,  no, 

112,  132. 

THEODORE  T.  MUNGER: 

Essays  for  the  Day,  70,  71,  74., 

79,  80,  82. 

Horace  Bushnell,  24,  57. 
Lamps  and  Paths,  66. 
On  the  Threshold,  66. 


352 


INDEX  OF  VOLUMES 


The  Appeal  to  Life,  63,  70. 
The  Freedom  of  Faith,  60,  62, 
63,  65,  70. 

NEWMAN  SMYTH: 

Christian  Ethics,  275. 
Constructive  Natural  Theol- 
ogy, 281,  282,  284. 
Old  Faiths  in  New  Light,  267, 

275- 

Passing  Protestantism  and 
Coming  Catholicism,  286. 

Personal  Creeds,  275. 

Religious  Feeling,  267,  275. 

The  Meaning  of  Personal  Life, 
276-79. 

The  Orthodox  Theology  of 
To-day,  275. 

The  Place  of  Death  in  Ev- 
olution, 281. 

Through  Science  to  Faith,  281, 
282. 


EGBERT  C.  SMYTH  (in  collabo- 
ration) : 

Progressive  Orthodoxy,  201, 
202,  204. 

The  Andover  Defence,  201, 
208,  209,  210. 

The  Divinity  of  our  Lord,  200. 

WILLIAM  J.  TUCKER: 

Modern  Christianity,  181. 

Personal  Power:  Counsels  to 
College  Men,  166. 

Public-Mindedness,  164,  165, 
169,  177,  179,  1 80. 

The  Church  in  Modern  Soci- 
ety, 173,  176. 

The  Effect  of  Democracy  on 
Religious  Progress,  181. 

The  Influence  of  Religion  To- 
day, 181. 

The  New  Reservation  of  Time, 
159,  160,  171,  182,  183. 


(Stfee  fcitoertfbe 

CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .    A 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY, 
BERKELEY 


tion  of  loan  period. 


DEC    1 


IN  STACKS 

APR  2  1  1959 


UJK 


1962 


3164 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


